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??? How do involuntary renters have freedom to decide?
Non sequitur.
Renters already made life choices/exercised their freedom to decide and made the choice to rent. I don't recall it being mandatory/involuntary for anyone to have to rent.
NEgirl. You're exactly right on. It used to be that people thought that once you paid off the house, you were set for life for a place to live. But the cost of keeping the lights on etc. has gone through the roof over the years. Our house is paid for, but it still costs us with internet, phone, elec. nat. gas, sewer, garbage, wastewater, taxes, cable and insurance about $10,000 a year. We looked at that for our retirement years and decided we had to cut that down a ton. And that doesn't include any money for repairs and upkeep. We've figured out a way to do, and live the way we want, but subdivision, suburban living is no longer in the plans. Too expensive for folks on a fixed income in retirement.
Living expenses are all a part of planning for retirement. About 10 years before we retired I did a complete energy audit of the house and did a huge insulation, door and window upgrade. Low flush toilets, efficient shower heads and a front loading washer cut our water usage by 2/3. Paying off the mortgage let me switch to a high deductible policy that costs less than 50% of a full policy. Sewer is my problem since we're on a septic, but I removed the old rusty steel septic tank and installed a modern 2-chamber concrete tank that will last for decades. Winter heat is a wood burning fireplace insert with our own wood, but buying enough wood to heat a well insulated house is not very expensive. This year a 30 year roof goes on the house. My wife and I will be dead before it has to be replaced. The deck has been rebuilt with Trex and treated framing.
I feel sorry for people who rent older homes. Some of them pay 3x as much for heat as we pay for all of our utilities together.
The big expense is property taxes, and my state lets people over 65 defer their taxes, which become a lien against the property.
You will have many of the expenses you mention no matter where you live. If you roll your house, cell phone, internet, cable, taxes, utilities and insurance together and it only costs you $850/month you are doing pretty good.
Or maybe you were a late-in-life buyer? Not one size profile fits all. And, a lot of retirees fairly well-off CHOOSE to carry a mortgage and invest elsewhere.
Perhaps not mentioned here is that it may not be a mortgage that throws retirees overboard, but the associated costs of home-owning which in and of themselves can equal or exceed the cost of a rental. Even those with paid-off mortgages lose their homes due to these associated costs they cannot meet. Namely property tax, which in many states is growing out of sight, and house insurance, which depending on where you live can be expensive. These wild cards may find many more retiree homeowners in straits in coming years, and in many if not most cases they cannot be blamed (though there are those who will want to...blame).
look at reality here in the tristate area. a home back when we all first became buyers in the 1970's was 35k.
that was a mortgage of 250 bucks which was a lot of money back then . my rent was 180 a month.
well today you likely paid off that 30k mortgage and taxes are 12-18k a year alone . that mortgage you no longer have does not even represent 1/2 your utility bill today.
so when it comes to affordability paying off a mortgage may be like peeing in the ocean when compared to carrying costs today .
so many here have paid off mortgages but can't afford to stay put.
why don't they , i have a choice . you are assuming all renters are poor .renters are a mixed bunch.
many renters have choices , they just prefer not to own.
Median renter income is 50% of median homeowner income. Renters are disproportionately in the bottom two income quintiles. Median homeowner wealth ranges from 31 to 46 times that of renters. Don't believe me, believe the National Association of REALTORS (R).
Living expenses are all a part of planning for retirement. About 10 years before we retired I did a complete energy audit of the house and did a huge insulation, door and window upgrade. Low flush toilets, efficient shower heads and a front loading washer cut our water usage by 2/3. Paying off the mortgage let me switch to a high deductible policy that costs less than 50% of a full policy. Sewer is my problem since we're on a septic, but I removed the old rusty steel septic tank and installed a modern 2-chamber concrete tank that will last for decades. Winter heat is a wood burning fireplace insert with our own wood, but buying enough wood to heat a well insulated house is not very expensive. This year a 30 year roof goes on the house. My wife and I will be dead before it has to be replaced. The deck has been rebuilt with Trex and treated framing.
I feel sorry for people who rent older homes. Some of them pay 3x as much for heat as we pay for all of our utilities together.
The big expense is property taxes, and my state lets people over 65 defer their taxes, which become a lien against the property.
You will have many of the expenses you mention no matter where you live. If you roll your house, cell phone, internet, cable, taxes, utilities and insurance together and it only costs you $850/month you are doing pretty good.
Good luck making a rental energy-efficient...or better yet, paying off the rent instead of just paying more and more year after year.
Renters already made life choices/exercised their freedom to decide and made the choice to rent. I don't recall it being mandatory/involuntary for anyone to have to rent.
??? Given a CHOICE I would be thrilled to own a tiny house on a tiny piece of land. A choice that government often precludes through zoning and housing regulation.
NEgirl. You're exactly right on. It used to be that people thought that once you paid off the house, you were set for life for a place to live. But the cost of keeping the lights on etc. has gone through the roof over the years. Our house is paid for, but it still costs us with internet, phone, elec. nat. gas, sewer, garbage, wastewater, taxes, cable and insurance about $10,000 a year. We looked at that for our retirement years and decided we had to cut that down a ton. And that doesn't include any money for repairs and upkeep. We've figured out a way to do, and live the way we want, but subdivision, suburban living is no longer in the plans. Too expensive for folks on a fixed income in retirement.
In many places property tax is rising much more than the expected and reasonable yearly hike. All it takes is a town like mine where the high-haves decide to build a 15-mil-dollar library instead of adding on to the existing one or joining forces with the adjacent town, build a multi-mil middle school instead of same, maintain town amenities that are annually losing money, and you can get a real surprise in the mail from one quarter to the next.
Not only that, but parts of the state where I live received a 29% increase (you read that right( in their electric bill, yes, suddenly. The outcry was significant enough for a moderation, but just like car gas that dips for short periods, it continues to rise overnight. Homeowner insurance costs too. Anyone trying to live by the COL rate hike of 3% or so is living in a former world.
How the hell do you swell a $77k house to a near $300k mortgage?!!! WTF
That kind of stupidity requires a lot of skill and planning.
I know several couples who financed their kids' college education with their homes. That's all it takes, not necessarily luxuries.
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Don't believe me, believe the National Association of REALTORS (R).
