Most Germans don’t buy their homes, they rent

Post by Veen » Mon, Oct 24, 2016, 6:16 PM UTC

standel wrote: post #151

aianus wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Owning your own home is like cooking your own food. It might be cheaper but only if you don't value your own time or have anything better to do. There's a reason why even rich, successful businesses rent office space instead of buying. They just can't manage a property as efficiently as the companies that focus on that.

Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft, IBM, HP and many others would certainly not agree with you. They cook their own food, own lot of real estate and I am pretty sure they don't think it's time they lost. These big companies do not manage one single house (office). They manage a real estate portfolio. Most of big companies have a mix of rented and acquired office space. Ultimately, owning real estate or not is an inve…

Post by codemac » Mon, Oct 24, 2016, 6:20 PM UTC

Spooky23 wrote: post #152

cm2187 wrote: post #5

So in Germany, the interest on a mortgage is non tax deductible. The article doesn't mention it but I understand that property owners are also liable for capital gain tax if they hold the property less than 10 years. I think that makes sense. There is no reason to favor individuals investing into an unproductive investment (property) over productive investments (stocks and bonds, which enable companies to raise money…

That's a ridiculous position. My ownership of my home provides a lot of active investment activity that wouldn't happen otherwise: Examples: - the local nursery benefits from the plants and growing materials that we buy - investments in home improvements generate contractor man-hours and local material purchases - as an active participant in stakeholder in the community, I contribute to the governance of the communit…

Post by aianus » Mon, Oct 24, 2016, 6:22 PM UTC

criddell wrote: post #160

aianus wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Owning your own home is like cooking your own food. It might be cheaper but only if you don't value your own time or have anything better to do. There's a reason why even rich, successful businesses rent office space instead of buying. They just can't manage a property as efficiently as the companies that focus on that.

> It might be cheaper but only if you don't value your own time or have anything better to do. No way. My family of four eats around $250 of food every week. That works out to $3 per person per meal. The other expenses would have to total more than $600 before we would break even eating fast food every day. The food we make at home is considerably better than fast food, so I think it would cost an extra $1000 to eat…

Post by pixl97 » Mon, Oct 24, 2016, 6:25 PM UTC

cm2187 wrote: post #130

riprowan wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is no reason to favor individuals investing into an unproductive investment (property) over productive investments (stocks and bonds). I beg to differ. I think that real estate, like farming, has critical societal benefits that are worthwhile to develop and maintain. Namely, it is very difficult to raise a family of four in a mutual fund. Investing in a home may is absolutely "productive." See, there are sign…

> Namely, it is very difficult to raise a family of four in a mutual fund. It is difficult to ski without skis. But most people don't buy skis, they rent them. Renting skis do not mean that no skis will be manufactured. There is a need for house, houses will be constructed, irrespective of whether people will over-bid on them or not. > A paid off home is a social safety net against homelessness Stocks and savings are…

Post by Jtsummers » Mon, Oct 24, 2016, 6:29 PM UTC

aianus wrote: post #165

criddell wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It might be cheaper but only if you don't value your own time or have anything better to do. No way. My family of four eats around $250 of food every week. That works out to $3 per person per meal. The other expenses would have to total more than $600 before we would break even eating fast food every day. The food we make at home is considerably better than fast food, so I think it would cost an extra $1000 to eat…

It takes ten minutes to earn $10 doing software engineering. In no universe am I cooking a better meal in less time.