I feel like real estate markets have way to much variance country to country, city to city, or even neighborhood to neighborhood, to make generalizations like this.
My thoughts on renting versus buying
211–220 of 318 posts
Re: My thoughts on renting versus buying
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
The carrying cost of a landlord is completely different than the carrying cost of a buyer with a mortgage. A landlord can charge a profitable rent on a property that doesn't even pay the mortgage interest if you were to buy it. This is a common case. I recently sold a house with a mortgage where my carrying costs were far below that of any buyer of the house, meaning I could break-even renting at a rate that would le…
Landlords charge market rate. It has little to do with their costs. The
Of course. But as several people have pointed out, the market rate can be far below the equivalent purchase cost and landlords can still make a profit in those markets.
There are many markets where the rental rates are far below mortgage costs for long periods of time.
Re: My thoughts on renting versus buying
#213Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Average rents are cheaper than average mortgage payments The average mortgage is for a family, the average rent is for a broke young worker or student living in a much smaller and worse accommodation. Renting is always more expensive than a mortgage for the same housing unit, because the landlord needs to make a profit from his tenants. Cooking the numbers won't change reality. The truth beats all the lies, no matt…
The median renter is 42 years old. Even a basic Google search would have saved you needing to post that comment. [1] https://www.zillow.com/research/renters-housing-trends-repor...
Age doesn't matter. The median renter has smaller and worse housing than the median mortgage payer.
For the same accommodation, renting is always more expensive than owning.
Re: My thoughts on renting versus buying
#214Earlier quoted context omitted.
0% this - neighborhoods with single family homes are more likely to have families, and kids often create friendships that carry over to parent friendships. And if anybody in the neighborhood takes the initiative to plan block parties, dinner parties, etc., that really helps a community take root. This just doesn't happen as often with apartments, where people are more transient and more likely to be single and/or chi…
Only in places with non family friendly apartments. 80% of Eastern Europe, for example, would disagree with you.
I am strictly talking about USA and I believe this entire thread is. I am originally from Eastern Europe, grew up in a 12-story building and can still recipe names of pretty much everyone that lived in the building when I left in 1992. Not only in that building but also a 10-story adjecent building :)
Re: My thoughts on renting versus buying
#215The author disclaims that he's not a homeowner at the very end of the article, but these types of pieces steelmanning renting always read to me as thinly veiled pleas of "please exit the market so I can have more".
Re: My thoughts on renting versus buying
#216Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t know. The effect of many families with young children all going and buying a house at roughly the same time is absolutely a thing. My street was filled with children when I was young (newly built neighborhood), and the same thing is true again now that I’ve bought a house. The street is filled with parents and children at roughly the same place in life. It’s nice when the only thing you need to do to find pla…
I'm confused... How do young families coordinate where and when to buy a house with their cohort?
Subdivisions of starter homes (defined both by size and price) tend to attract young families
Re: My thoughts on renting versus buying
#217If renting doesn’t make sense economically, how is it profitable for the landlord? Because it’s almost always profitable for the landlord.
I’m pretty sure my landlord’s family trust owns our 100 year old home outright. At this point, any rent is “free” for them, modulo repair and maintenance costs.
Re: My thoughts on renting versus buying
#218Earlier quoted context omitted.
you can also win a lottery
At least 10^7 people have refinanced their homes at lower rates, while only 10^5 people have won the lottery. So refinancing is substantially more likely than lottering.
yea an event that happened just once ( 2.5% rate ) is more likely.
Re: My thoughts on renting versus buying
#219The author disclaims that he's not a homeowner at the very end of the article, but these types of pieces steelmanning renting always read to me as thinly veiled pleas of "please exit the market so I can have more".
this is one of those where sheer facts and numbers can be interpreted either way and more
so (in my opinion) than most other “arguments” it is almost impossible
to change someone’s opinion once it formed.
I once spent 1/2 my Sunday trying to convince my best friend that he would have financially been better off if he rented (he paid off his house which he can sell today for $2,000,000) - I came with receipts (pun intended) showing how he would have been significantly better off if he rented and invested in the market but to no avail :)
Re: My thoughts on renting versus buying
#220Earlier quoted context omitted.
Condo means an apartment that you own (vs rent).
Interesting.. I would never think Condo described the financial relation you had with the house but not some intrinsic quality of the house itself.
Technically it doesn’t (as it means condominium which in theory could be single family homes) but practically it almost always means an “apartment you own” though sometimes “half a duplex” or similar proportions of a quad or six plex style.
But in the US it usually implies neighbors above and below and on the sides.