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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

#371

Post by [deleted] »

jameshush wrote: post #311
nwatson wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or work remotely. One can make way above prevailing local salaries working remotely for SF Bay Area companies.

I'll echo this. The 6-7 years of "California" tech experience pays dividends in other countries. Ended up moving to Taipei so my example is a bit extreme, but I have quite a few friends making "low end" California $100k-120k USD/year wages while living in the middle of nowhere Canada. I still wanted to live in a city, and Taipei has all the amenities Los Angeles or San Francisco had (nice bars, hipster coffee shops,…

[deleted]

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

#372

Post by thomasahle »

atatatat wrote: post #317
JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you had a significant other with a similar upper middle class wage, e.g., $220k * 2 = $440k you could probably swing it with more breathing room. You are wise to avoid the burden, in the chance you technically qualify for the mortgage but barely so in the Bay Area (e.g., leaving you house poor). The fact that home affordability requires a HH income in the top 2-3% is, to put it mildly, highly concerning. It makes…

> upper middle class wage, e.g., $220k Oh, so you live on one of the coasts, then.

The US: Highest inequality in the Western world.

Also the US: Everyone is middle class.

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

#373

Post by refurb »

mrep wrote: post #370
refurb wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see this claim a lot - "you can't save on rent because your landlord has to cover their costs". But this is only true if your landlord purchased at the time you rented. I rented a $1.8M apartment for $3,000 per month (~1/3 of total ownership costs). That's because my landlord bought 20 years before when the apartment was worth $200k. His monthly costs were maybe $1,000.

I am extremely doubtful of the claim that an apartment that only nets 36,000 in rent per year is somehow worth 1,800,000. That's a 2% return before any associated costs. I literally just looked at another rental property that was netting 8k a month across all tenants and was listed at 1,150,000. There is no way that other owner could actually sell that place for 1,800,000.

Not sure what to tell you. The place two doors down that was smaller went for $1.5M.

Of course the landlord couldn’t sell it for $1.8M with me in it (because of SF rent control). But when I moved out and it was empty? They absolutely could.

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

#374

Post by chiefalchemist »

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…

Limited as in, you can't simply upgrade or down grade in say BRs or baths or location, or yard.

Owning is a commitment. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that commitment; other than the fact there are costs associated with that. Those forgotten costs are often significant.

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

#375

Post by BTCOG »

JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #254
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…

If you had a significant other with a similar upper middle class wage, e.g., $220k * 2 = $440k you could probably swing it with more breathing room. You are wise to avoid the burden, in the chance you technically qualify for the mortgage but barely so in the Bay Area (e.g., leaving you house poor). The fact that home affordability requires a HH income in the top 2-3% is, to put it mildly, highly concerning. It makes…

$200k+ yearly salary is in no way at all, middle-class.

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

#376

Post by snowwrestler »

refurb wrote: post #338
kelnos wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your building has HOA dues, renting doesn't mean you aren't paying it; it just means your landlord built the cost of it into your rent. Same with property tax and the landlord's home insurance payment. After which, if you want to be safe, you then need to spend more to get renter's insurance. And I would expect a landlord would build estimated repair costs into the rent as well, at least to some extent. Of course…

I see this claim a lot - "you can't save on rent because your landlord has to cover their costs". But this is only true if your landlord purchased at the time you rented. I rented a $1.8M apartment for $3,000 per month (~1/3 of total ownership costs). That's because my landlord bought 20 years before when the apartment was worth $200k. His monthly costs were maybe $1,000.

Your landlord doesn’t save on HOA fees, repairs, taxes, or insurance because they bought 20 years ago. Those are all costs that are charged in present dollars. Repair services want to get paid in 2021 dollars. Property taxes are based on assessments of current value. Insurance premiums are set to cover present replacement costs.

The only thing your landlord saves on by buying 20 years ago is the nominal cost of the property itself, either as a low fixed mortgage payment, or as a paid-off property.

This is just the effect of time and a fixed mortgage rate. If you were able to buy now, in 20 years you could be in the same position with respect to your property costs.

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

#377

Post by stonemetal12 »

rory wrote: post #233
stonemetal12 wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, rents go up and down for reasons other than inflation.

That is another type of inflation, but it's an interesting point that you may care about both the general consumer inflation rate (for its interaction with the mortgage interest rate) and the rent price inflation rate.

I just assumed the inflation rate was applied to both rent and house price, as a general change in the value of a dollar. While they mostly move in line together, rent prices and home prices don't always move together so a change in value term that effects one and not the other might be useful.

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

#378

Post by BTCOG »

sjg007 wrote: post #301
hnhousingthrow wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Firefighters make 100k, some teachers do too. Depends where you live. More over you need someone to buy your 800k house you spent 600k on. It’ll be a remote worker who buys it if the local economy can’t support that so…… hopefully remote work is here to stay.

The average salary of a firefighter in the United States is $52k. Teachers average $15/hour. No clue where you're getting these outrageous figures other than if you're a Californian and think anything about California is "normal" in the sense of the rest of the United States. If 30+ states pay firefighters $50k, and teachers make $15/hr in 40 states... actually makes California look like what it is, a massive bubble.

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

#379

Post by MeinBlutIstBlau »

throwaway803453 wrote: post #261
MeinBlutIstBlau wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dont like the process of moving, but the cleanup, and starting again is a wonderful relief from a previous burden.

And the elimination/ebay'ing of items that you realize you haven't touched or unpacked since your last move. Arguably untouched junk in American households has better housing than most people in this world.

People have way too much junk here. I'm more of the mind "will I get my dollars worth out of this?" before I buy. I prefer the liquidity of cash over having to deal with owning, monitoring, moving, or selling another asset. I assume best case I can get half of what I paid for it. If it's super niche, I'll be lucky to even find a buyer. If it's expensive, I just assume I'm gonna take a huge loss. That's why I don't like buying too many things. Stuff is great...until you have to move.

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

#380

Post by MeinBlutIstBlau »

tuananh wrote: post #328
MeinBlutIstBlau wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dont like the process of moving, but the cleanup, and starting again is a wonderful relief from a previous burden.

i guess you love total code rewrite too :D

I love reform so much that I'd make Martin Luther look like a Catholic apologist!
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