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

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jul 20, 2021, 2:37 AM UTC

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…

Post by cammikebrown » Tue, Jul 20, 2021, 2:40 AM UTC

nodesocket wrote: post #259

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…

Similarly, I bought last Sept in Nashville, TN and Zillow says my house is up 13.5% already. The Nashville housing market is especially ridiculous, it's one of the hottest in the US. > Relatedly, a ~70 year old woman bagged my groceries today and I doubt she's doing it for fun. Seems the accelerating wealth inequality is destroying our society/communities if it hasn't already. Let's not forget about the error in exte…

Post by TravHatesMe » Tue, Jul 20, 2021, 2:42 AM UTC

supernovae wrote: post #200

ramraj07 wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I bought my house for 225k, our neighborhood is selling for 650k now. My mortgage is much more affordable than the rents that have gone up over the years to more closely reflect the 650k pricing. But damn the taxes are gonna hurt everyone here... renter or owner (as the renter you're just covering them for the owner)

Post by swiley » Tue, Jul 20, 2021, 2:53 AM UTC

hnhousingthrow wrote: post #242

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…

Just to follow up on a deleted comment that thought I was complaining, I guess my point is that decent housing (both renting and owning) has become unaffordable for most people. High-income earners like myself will be okay, if okay means spending half of my salary on rent where I literally step over homeless people as part of an hourlong commute. My greater fear is what happens to the "essential workers", the heroes…

Post by Spooky23 » Tue, Jul 20, 2021, 2:56 AM UTC

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?