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Show HN: Should I Get a House? a better rent vs. buy calculator

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Re: Show HN: Should I Get a House? a better rent vs. buy calculator

#211

Post by Thrymr »

benglish11 wrote: post #201
hatchnyc wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I wish we had German-style "unfurnished" apartments available in the US where you can rent an apartment that's literally concrete subfloor and unpainted walls, no kitchen appliances or cabinets, etc. I guess Americans move too frequently to make this viable.

Don’t Germans generally move their whole kitchen? I think I remember this correctly from taking German a bunch of years ago.

I really do not get the appeal of moving your own cabinets from apartment to apartment. But I guess it does allow you to customize your rented place more than is possible in the US.

Re: Show HN: Should I Get a House? a better rent vs. buy calculator

#212

Post by duped »

wil421 wrote: post #195
duped wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean this is the definition of a strawman argument. Whether it's 10 or 20% down payment is not that significant. Even 5% is un-affordable. The median sale price of a home was $347,000 last month (0). 5% down on that is $17,350, accounting for closing costs you're going to need around $24,000 in cash to purchase a home. Which isn't all that much money, except if you consider that it's more than 1/3rd of the median f…

Who pays closing costs when you are buying a house for the first time?

The buyer.

Re: Show HN: Should I Get a House? a better rent vs. buy calculator

#213

Post by dragontamer »

ramraj07 wrote: post #172
mauvehaus wrote: post #119

You get old enough, and you get tired of somebody else making decisions from afar that affect your day to day life with no real consequences to them. Little things like the kitchen layout being moronic and having zero drawers get old when it isn't your choice to remodel or live with it. And while it's nice to say "just move", let's not forget that moving costs a couple months rent and a massive time investment to fin…

Eh, almost no one I’ve seen has ever spent less by moving to their own home. They’ll typically end up spending at least half of what they spent as rent just on things other than the mortgage (which would typically be much higher than the rent by itself). Now of course they often would get a larger, nicer place that’s exactly what they wanted, but let’s not kid ourselves that home ownership is somehow cheaper. It neve…

But you don't "lose" or "spend" the equity portion of your mortgage bill.

That's the difference. If you have a $2500/month mortgage, by year 10 or so that's probably $1000 equity + $1500 interest.

The "interest" portion gets tax-deducted (so you get a portion of it back), while the $1000 equity is literally yours. When you sell the house, that's the portion you get back.

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So really, $2500/month mortgage (after a few years of living there) is really a $1000 cost + $1500 forced savings account. Then some maintenance / taxes on top of that.

Since you're building equity while living in a home, a $2500 mortgage is in fact far far cheaper than a $2500 rental.

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If this is confusing, then think about the "down payment" when you first get the mortgage. A $100,000 down payment may have cost you cash, but its not like the down payment disappears. When you sell the house and close the mortgage, that $100,000 comes back to you (plus all the equity you gained).

Re: Show HN: Should I Get a House? a better rent vs. buy calculator

#214

Post by RhysU »

293984j29384 wrote: post #120
WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #98

In 2021, the buy vs rent decision is a little like Should I buy a whale ranch on Mars or Venus? I suggest that the decision whether to rent a house might want to take into account that each rental ad is getting hundreds of applicants, each day - with few new ads showing up. ref: https://www.militarytimes.com/pay-benefits/mil-money/2021/07... ref: https://www.amisun.com/2021/06/27/once-in-a-generation-housi... ref: ht…

Why would you assume it's to rent a house? It's a great time to be an apartment renter in big markets like NYC. I just got 2 months free on my lease renewal and I've seen even better deals out there but I didn't want to move.

Isn't that the trick where the price looks good initially and then it goes up wickedly after 12 months because they won't give you free months when you renew?

Re: Show HN: Should I Get a House? a better rent vs. buy calculator

#215

Post by neogodless »

vineyardmike wrote: post #189
sokoloff wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're worried about losing a couple months' rent, kitchen remodels are not for you...

Some people move (rental) apartments every 12 months. Thats very common and adds up fast even if you're not broke.

I've never lost a deposit or watched extra rent vanish by moving. I'm confused why anyone would let that happen.

Maybe it's a regional thing?

Re: Show HN: Should I Get a House? a better rent vs. buy calculator

#216

Post by chucknthem »

LouisSayers wrote: post #181

Another factor people miss is that the place you buy might be much worse than a place you could rent. Atm I share a rented place with others, but it's in a great location - walkable distance to Melbourne's CBD. I pay $250 per week for a good size room and the house is worth at least $1.5M. If I were to go buy a place in the current market I could only afford a place perhaps around $850k at most. I'd have to move away…

The market around me is the opposite. The single family home I bought was just remodeled with modern amenities and the house is in a nice walkable neighborhood. The rentals around me costs less than my mortgage but they're not nearly as nice. I'd be willing to rent a place like mine, but there simply isn't any rental inventory like it. Maybe above a certain price people would rather spend that on a mortgage than rent.

Re: Show HN: Should I Get a House? a better rent vs. buy calculator

#217

Post by hatchnyc »

dougmwne wrote: post #176
hatchnyc wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I wish we had German-style "unfurnished" apartments available in the US where you can rent an apartment that's literally concrete subfloor and unpainted walls, no kitchen appliances or cabinets, etc. I guess Americans move too frequently to make this viable.

Would your landlord pay you for the improvements you make? Is seems a full interior build out could cost tens of thousands of euros. Why not just buy if you have that much free cash sitting around for a down payment? And what happens if your landlord tries to push you out?

I think this is not going to make sense if your only point of reference is residential rentals in a typical American city, but this is how it is done in at least some places in Europe. People tend to stay in one place for much longer than Americans. If you're on a budget you can go to Ikea and buy a kitchen...based on my friends' places I'd say that's the norm.

Re: Show HN: Should I Get a House? a better rent vs. buy calculator

#218

Post by sokoloff »

neogodless wrote: post #215
vineyardmike wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people move (rental) apartments every 12 months. Thats very common and adds up fast even if you're not broke.

I've never lost a deposit or watched extra rent vanish by moving. I'm confused why anyone would let that happen. Maybe it's a regional thing?

In some areas, tenants pay a broker placement fee of a month's rent, plus an application and credit check fee. In all regions, tenants pay for the move costs itself. Many times you discover that your furniture isn't quite right, your Ikea-grade knockdown furniture didn't all survive the move intact, you "need" to buy a different rug for one of the rooms, you might want to have more than 0 days of overlap between the places to make the move easier (or you might be forced to take a month overlap to secure the place you want), and add some custom-sized blackout window shades to sleep, etc...

I read the above as "[an amount of extra expenses equal to] a couple months' rent" rather than literally "an extra two months' of rent checks to the landlord".

Re: Show HN: Should I Get a House? a better rent vs. buy calculator

#219

Post by throwaway0a5e »

anonAndOn wrote: post #196
hnhousingthrow wrote: post #188

These calculators don't reflect the reality/absurdity of the current economy. Anecdotal, but I bought a house in eastern California last year for $600k, now Zillow says it's worth $835k. Also, I'll unlikely ever be able to afford a house in the Bay Area, even though I make $220k/year at a company there. Still don't know what I'll do if my employer makes us return to the SF office in a few months. Relatedly, a ~70 yea…

I submit the housing market of Phoenix, Arizona as an example of peak bubble. There are numerous houses on the market today that were previously sold... ~30 days ago. This feels more ludicrous than the speculative housing bubble of '07.

Yeah, pretty much anywhere California money is cashing out and fleeing too is way more insane than California itself.

Re: Show HN: Should I Get a House? a better rent vs. buy calculator

#220

Post by sokoloff »

Johnny555 wrote: post #207
chiefalchemist wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regardless of age, needs and priorities change. There's no joy in moving, but it's still better than the time suck of hiring a contractor, electrician, and/or plumber. AND having to pay them. Owning is nice. But it's more limited and more time consuming. There's a cost associated with that.

Owning is nice. But it's more limited and more time consuming. There's a cost associated with that. I'm not sure I agree that owning is limiting, it can be more time consuming if you don't want to hire people to do the work that the condo gives you "for free", but there are few limits. In my last condo, a neighbor spent months trying to get approval to put a pre-fab sauna on her outdoor patio, she submitted the archi…

I very much identify with this. During COVID, we wanted to get a trampoline for our youngest kid who really enjoyed using a friend's.

How much aggravation was it? We own our house, so it was: Order it on Amazon, wait a couple days, then spend 90 minutes putting it together. The hardest part was finding one with fully enclosed springs that was in-stock.

He's jumped on it an average of at least 5 days a week, including sometimes in a light rain if he had excess energy to burn off. If we had a rented place or a shared yard or an HOA, who knows whether we'd have ever gotten it done?

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