What, exactly, is "crazy" about it? As a renter, you don't control your own destiny. You're at the whim of your landlord. As a home-owner, or better yet, a property-owner, you have much more control over your living situation. Don't like the paint color? Change it. Don't like your stove? Get a new one. Want to plant some new flowers? Go for it.
As a renter, you're going to be dealing with rents rising year over year. Those with fixed mortgages will see the same payments for decades.
If you have kids, you want some more stability, most likely. If the building you rent in is sold, or the rent is raised too much, you have to move. You want to install anything permanent for the kids? Have to ask permission from the landlord.
Not to mention the fact that, if you're paying $1,000/mo for rent, at the end of the year, you have almost nothing to show for your $12,000. In a house/home, you have equity in said house.
And since when did the housing bubble have anything to do with "obsession with home ownership"? I was under the impression it was a combination of unsound investments ("home prices always go up, so it's OK to spend more than you can afford!") and shady mortgage companies dishing out loans with no regard as to whether a person could pay for them.
>>What, exactly, is "crazy" about it? As a renter, you don't control your own destiny. You're at the whim of your landlord. As a home-owner, or better yet, a property-owner, you have much more control over your living situation. Don't like the paint color? Change it. Don't like your stove? Get a new one. Want to plant some new flowers? Go for it.
This is hilarious.
As a home-owner, you have control over your own home, but you have no control over your neighbors or your neighborhood in general. If things go badly, your house depreciates in value and there isn't much you can do to change it. Therefore, when you buy a home you are buying control of your immediate living situation while simultaneously surrendering yourself to the whims of those around you.
If you don't like your stove, you can get a new one. But what if you don't like your neighbors? That's a much bigger problem than not liking your stove, and there isn't a single thing you can do about it. They aren't going away anytime soon, and neither are you.
That is an asinine argument. You're more likely to run into terrible neighbors in an apartment setting, with the higher turnover in living spaces. Your argument is done in by basic research into the neighborhood.
That's like saying that you shouldn't buy a home simply because it might burn down one day, whereas living in an apartment is fine, because if it does burn down, it's not your building.
>>That is an asinine argument. You're more likely to run into terrible neighbors in an apartment setting, with the higher turnover in living spaces.
Except in a rental setting you can complain to the landlord if your neighbors are noisy, or simply pack up your shit and move if things don't change.
With a house, you're literally rooted in that space for 5-10 years. If you get bad neighbors after making the purchase, you get screwed. If someone decides to build a factory half a mile away, you get screwed. If the nearby school that you purchased the house for degrades in quality, you get screwed. If the HoA decides for some reason (that they don't even need to justify) that they don't like your front yard, guess what: you get screwed. These things cannot be insured against or researched in advance. You simply have to live with them.
That is an asinine argument. You're more likely to run into terrible neighbors in an apartment setting, with the higher turnover in living spaces. Your argument is done in by basic research into the neighborhood.
Disagree. A lot of neighborhoods have homeowners' associations, which are like New York co-op boards and basically an excuse for non-working house-spouses to get in peoples' way because they have literally nothing else to do.
He's right. Homeownership can be a pain in the ass if you care strongly about the subjective aspects of living in a place. You have an investment that other people can fuck with by building shit near it, and you have people trying to prevent you from changing what you have.
HOAs do exist, and can be intrusive, but OP's final line still applies: "Your argument is done in by basic research into the neighborhood."
Anyone buying a home knows if the home their looking at has an HOA or is a condo. I know many people who would never consider buying a home covered by an HOA, and many other people who like knowing that their neighbor can't paint their house pink and do car repair in the front yard with death metal playing. Caveat emptor.
Finally, many of these risks are reduced by actually being a part of the community. Don't want a factory built 0.5 miles from your home? Go to the planning meetings, talk to your city planning staff/council members. Join the HOA board. Being a homeowner means that you have an incentive to invest in your community and make it the community you want it to be. If you just disconnect and let others make decisions for you, yes you can be screwed. However, if you participate, get to know your neighbors, and become a part of the community, you can make it everything you want it to be, and more.
>>Finally, many of these risks are reduced by actually being a part of the community. Don't want a factory built 0.5 miles from your home? Go to the planning meetings, talk to your city planning staff/council members. Join the HOA board. Being a homeowner means that you have an incentive to invest in your community and make it the community you want it to be. If you just disconnect and let others make decisions for you, yes you can be screwed. However, if you participate, get to know your neighbors, and become a part of the community, you can make it everything you want it to be, and more.
I think you're grasping at straws here and it shows. All of the things you listed are incredible time-sucks. If you have ever been to an HOA meeting, you will know exactly what I'm talking about.
And did you just suggest going to city planning meetings to prevent the building of a nearby factory? I'm sorry, but do you even understand how these things work?
There are laws against most of the things neighbors could do to annoy you. Which means you can involve police and/or the courts, until your neighbors stop annoying you.
If you're renting, especially in an apartment complex, and go to sue, that likely means involving the landlord, and thus getting kicked out as soon as the legal retaliation period is up.
What, exactly, is "crazy" about it? As a renter, you don't control your own destiny. You're at the whim of your landlord. As a home-owner, or better yet, a property-owner, you have much more control over your living situation. Don't like the paint color? Change it. Don't like your stove? Get a new one. Want to plant some new flowers? Go for it.
Want to move to San Francisco to work at a new startup? Oops, you have a house, you're fucked. Breaking a lease is a lot easier than selling/renting your home. Being mobile is a lot better, for job prospects if you aren't in one of the hot spots already.
For one very specific subset of society. For other people with different priorities (friends, family, what-have-you), owning a home might be "a lot better" for them.
Yes, specifically people with wives and children like me. This is what's driving the property market in cities like Austin and Boulder. Talent is moving there because they can work for a startup and still have a healthy family life, work/life balance, and non-insane commute.
I've always considered rent as an expensive form of insurance.
Something major happens like the furnace going out mid winter, or a huge roof leak developing, or some other catastrophic event, or heck, even basic maintenance, It's not my problem, and my actual (dirt cheap) renter's insurance will take care of any damage.
$12,000 a year buys a lot of peace of mind. And honestly, unless I'm actually using my house as an investment rather than a place to live, equity is mostly meaningless to me.
> Not to mention the fact that, if you're paying $1,000/mo for rent, at the end of the year, you have almost nothing to show for your $12,000. In a house/home, you have equity in said house.
Suppose you buy a $300k house with a 15% downpayment. That means you spent $45k to GET the house. Now if the rent payments and the mortgage payment are both about the same, both spend $12k/year to keep their house, but the homeowner gains a very small amount of equity (most of the payment in the early years goes to interest on the mortgage) but the renter has an extra $45k of liquid net worth! If the renter invests in the stock market or a money market fund he gets some ROI from that - income the homeowner can't get. Plus being more solvent is valuable in itself in these hard times.
As a renter, you're going to be dealing with rents rising year over year. Those with fixed mortgages will see the same payments for decades.
If you have kids, you want some more stability, most likely. If the building you rent in is sold, or the rent is raised too much, you have to move. You want to install anything permanent for the kids? Have to ask permission from the landlord.
Not to mention the fact that, if you're paying $1,000/mo for rent, at the end of the year, you have almost nothing to show for your $12,000. In a house/home, you have equity in said house.
And since when did the housing bubble have anything to do with "obsession with home ownership"? I was under the impression it was a combination of unsound investments ("home prices always go up, so it's OK to spend more than you can afford!") and shady mortgage companies dishing out loans with no regard as to whether a person could pay for them.