When does it make sense to rent vs own in Florida?

[City Guy997S]

Originally Posted by wizrap

My sister in law owns a 3/2 SFH in a Broward suburb. One of her friends owns a high rise condo right on the ocean. Her friend can’t afford the assessments and property taxes so for now,

Her friend is living a lifestyle she can't afford. So why not sell the condo of debts and buy something she can afford? The taxes and assessments won't be getting cheaper!

Old condos are going to be money pits in the years to come. Surfside was an expensive lesson.

[Chas863]

Originally Posted by FloridaMD

I left the state 14 years ago, have been living in Oregon. Beautiful state, but the last several years has declined greatly in quality of life due to increasing crime, drugs, homelessness, loss of a lot of doctors (like me) that would make it hard to stay here in retirement and have the services I need, especially my own healthcare. I'm now about 3 years away from hanging it up myself. I've thought about coming back to Florida where I spent 10 years of my life. I still have many friends there to reconnect with. Looking at St. Petersburg. Very shocked to see the explosion of cost of housing there since I left (lived in Tampa/St Pete area from 2000 to 2003). Areas where homes used to be under 100K for a dump now running 300K plus, and homes similar to what I have out here in Oregon are priced similarly 600K and up, so I wouldn't be getting much of a positive trade off there, I'd call it a wash.
I'm more worried about the escalating costs of homeowner's insurance with flood/hurricane and even being able to find a policy at all. Makes me think there is bound to be some inflection point eventually where it makes more sense to rent than throw away so much money on insurance, HOA, etc., especially in retirement when I may not be in a place longer than 20 yrs before I end up in a retirement community/ALF, etc.
I'm single, fancied maybe living part of the year out of the country, but I'd spend probably 6 months a year stateside. Really don't want a condo/townhouse as I don't want to be right on top of other people. Have plenty of time to consider options, but wondering if this topic has come up a lot lately with the escalation in home values and taxes/insurances.

My suggestion is to look for a place to buy somewhere inland and in the northern half of the state. Relatively low hurricane risk; relatively reasonable housing prices.

I think that I hear The Villages calling your name.


.

[silverct9a]

Personally, I see very few scenarios where renting makes more sense than owning especially if that property is deemed desirable.

There was literally a black swan event that occurred during early 2020 to early 2022 where if one acquired property during that fixed period, they not only saw record low interest rates that I personally believe we will NEVER see again, but the appreciation of said property absolutely skyrocketed - Those who were ready and pounced made out like absolute bandits. Personally my properties nearly tripled in value...I, and most could never have worked to earn that kind of money so quickly.

An ugly side exists to this equation however and its called trading on inside information...Elites (Repub & Dem!) knew ahead of time of planned USA lockdown and interest rate slashing actions and leveraged that information to literally become rich overnight (dumped stock, bought stock, early forgivable PPP loans etc) - We know this because watch groups track the stock trading of congressional members and rightfully so!

Sick stuff and very few of the general public knew they got fleeced (think inflation/COL) because if they did, we'd ALL have torches and pitchforks in D.C. back then and even today.

[blueskies2023]

Originally Posted by FloridaMD

I really have to find a humid place for retirement, as crazy as that sounds. I have severe corneal dryness issues and any low humidity environments cause me significant eye discomfort. I have to live on lubricating eye drops. As much as I hate sweating my butt off, my eyes feel wonderful every time I come back to Florida to visit. Indoor humidifiers don't work well enough.

Plenty of humid states in the usa. alabama, louisiana, georgia, heck the entire east coast is humid.

[blueskies2023]

Originally Posted by City Guy997S

Ehhh..........I've never seen a renter turn a profit.

Got any links that show renting is "more sense to own?"

actually, I have. Take 200,000 in cash, place it safe in market, plenty of great returns safe at 8 or 9%. Make $$$$$. Rent example, $2k a month. Own, aside from mortgage or cash payment, hoa is ??? Property tax is ???? , insurance property is ????. Most of us are near $2k in hoa plus tax, plus insurance alone.

[blueskies2023]

Originally Posted by silverct9a

Personally, I see very few scenarios where renting makes more sense than owning especially if that property is deemed desirable.

There was literally a black swan event that occurred during early 2020 to early 2022 where if one acquired property during that fixed period, they not only saw record low interest rates that I personally believe we will NEVER see again, but the appreciation of said property absolutely skyrocketed - Those who were ready and pounced made out like absolute bandits. Personally my properties nearly tripled in value...I, and most could never have worked to earn that kind of money so quickly.

An ugly side exists to this equation however and its called trading on inside information...Elites (Repub & Dem!) knew ahead of time of planned USA lockdown and interest rate slashing actions and leveraged that information to literally become rich overnight (dumped stock, bought stock, early forgivable PPP loans etc) - We know this because watch groups track the stock trading of congressional members and rightfully so!

Sick stuff and very few of the general public knew they got fleeced (think inflation/COL) because if they did, we'd ALL have torches and pitchforks in D.C. back then and even today.

How, where do you see what a congressman/woman trades? ?

[StuartM1]

A couple sources of info below. When you really look into the unrecoverable costs of buying vs renting, even with conservative estimated inputs, it's surprising how much less expensive renting can be vs buying.

*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uwl3-jBNEd4

https://www.calculator.net/rent-vs-buy-calculator.html

[silverct9a]

Easy - The Stock Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act requires U.S. Senators and U.S. Representatives to publicly file and disclose any financial transaction within 45 days of its occurrence.

Have at it:

https://www.quiverquant.com/congresstrading/

https://www.capitoltrades.com/

Now, don't expect to mimic this trading activity for your own personal benefit because the information we plebs have is outdated by at least 45 days. To honestly have a decent shot, one would at MINIMUM have to have access to a Bloomberg Terminal (typically $2000/month or $24,000/yr).

Ever wonder how your pension or 401k is handled? and by whom? What if i told you your entire planned retirement is gambled daily and stock market winners/losers are handpicked...would you believe me?

Call me Morpheus, Red pill or Blue pill my friend - based on what you pick, my VPN and I have all day to tell you the truth.

Originally Posted by blueskies2023

How, where do you see what a congressman/woman trades? ?

[Arcenal813]

Originally Posted by silverct9a

Personally, I see very few scenarios where renting makes more sense than owning especially if that property is deemed desirable.

If it's a house, I agree. However, some of us, in certain situations, like apartment living. If I owned a house, 75% of the time it would be left vacant. I just need a private place where we can cook, bathe, and sleep. In the future, in the event that I marry/get into a serious relationship, I'll consider buying either a condo or house somewhere, and will spend more time at home.

[MortonR]

Originally Posted by FloridaMD

I left the state 14 years ago, have been living in Oregon. Beautiful state, but the last several years has declined greatly in quality of life due to increasing crime, drugs, homelessness, loss of a lot of doctors (like me) that would make it hard to stay here in retirement and have the services I need, especially my own healthcare. I'm now about 3 years away from hanging it up myself. I've thought about coming back to Florida where I spent 10 years of my life. I still have many friends there to reconnect with. Looking at St. Petersburg. Very shocked to see the explosion of cost of housing there since I left (lived in Tampa/St Pete area from 2000 to 2003). Areas where homes used to be under 100K for a dump now running 300K plus, and homes similar to what I have out here in Oregon are priced similarly 600K and up, so I wouldn't be getting much of a positive trade off there, I'd call it a wash.
I'm more worried about the escalating costs of homeowner's insurance with flood/hurricane and even being able to find a policy at all. Makes me think there is bound to be some inflection point eventually where it makes more sense to rent than throw away so much money on insurance, HOA, etc., especially in retirement when I may not be in a place longer than 20 yrs before I end up in a retirement community/ALF, etc.
I'm single, fancied maybe living part of the year out of the country, but I'd spend probably 6 months a year stateside. Really don't want a condo/townhouse as I don't want to be right on top of other people. Have plenty of time to consider options, but wondering if this topic has come up a lot lately with the escalation in home values and taxes/insurances.

I am leaving Florida for good next week. Why? Because the cost of living here has gotten out of control. I’ll be retiring in the near future and while income won’t be an issue, I don’t want to live where long term costs are so unpredictable, not to mention the weather. Of course, everyone says the next one will be the “Big One”, but I’ve been here for almost 30 years and a lot of storms, and there’s no question in my mind that they have been getting worse. I truly believe that there will be a major hurricane like the one that hit Ft. Myers a couple years ago. I’m prepared with hurricane shutters and a whole-house generator set with a 1,000 gallon LP tank that could run my house for at least 7-10 days. Nice to know, but to be honest, who wants to be around after a storm of that magnitude?

I have a good friend who owned a nice Craftsman bungalow near downtown Seattle. He recently left the area, mainly due to the vagrants that hung around his neighborhood, one who moved into his garden shed! Law enforcement wouldn’t do a thing, he had to threaten the guy with bodily harm to get him off the property.

I totally understand your medical situation, but I can’t imagine it would be so bad that you would consider coming here. I know the PNW, Seattle and Portland, and while I know things have gone downhill there over the last decade or so, I can’t imagine the costs being lower, except for maybe real estate. Insurance alone, both car and homeowner’s, will eat you alive.

Good luck!

RM