71–79 of 79 posts
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“Just have well off parents”
They didn't gave me a cent. Just living with them and not paying rent and food meant I could save almost 100% of income. After 13 years I was able to buy apartment.
How much additional money would your parents have were they not paying for your food? How much could they earn on AirBnB if they had that room spare?
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Maybe in the market this very moment it's tougher to buy, but I bought in 2020 and my mortgage + other expenses pretty much match what I was paying in an expensive city (Seattle). I didn't buy in Seattle but it's an easy drive away. And my house is 3k sqft vs the 800 I had in the city. And that space is put to work: Proper office, guestroom, gym room, much larger and nicer kitchen (which in turn saves me even more mo…
What city do you live in now? When I lived in Seattle, most of the suburbs with 3k sqft houses weren't that walkable.
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Maybe in the market this very moment it's tougher to buy, but I bought in 2020 and my mortgage + other expenses pretty much match what I was paying in an expensive city (Seattle). I didn't buy in Seattle but it's an easy drive away. And my house is 3k sqft vs the 800 I had in the city. And that space is put to work: Proper office, guestroom, gym room, much larger and nicer kitchen (which in turn saves me even more mo…
It must be nice to get a mortgage at ~3.1% or less. Do you realize that you would be paying over 50% more per month for that same mortgage today? Would you still consider that a super good deal that you can't imagine anyone not taking? Rate lock-in isn't that great with a high interest rate, because you are going to need to pay thousands to refinance. I get where you're coming from, but it's a different analysis toda…
But this article is about "Forever" Renters. I highly doubt buying a house will never be worth it if you follow the above path.
Renting is underrated, especially in the US I feel where people are constantly encouraged to buy a house. https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/renting-is-not-a-waste...
The decision is really surprisingly multi-dimensional and, no, most people don't even scratch the surface of it. I thought this calculator was brilliant a decade ago, and my opinions hasn't changed. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/buy-rent-cal...
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Ever since the dawn of 'trickle down economics', wealth has only continued to be distributed upwards and is becoming increasingly concentrated at the top. This is because the cost of everything except labour has increased, forcing many to try and do more with less. It is completely and utterly unsustainable and I doubt anybody young will ever experience the kind of prosperity that came after WW2. You can't even rely…
That is not true. Cost of everything except housing in high demand cities decreased dramatically during latest few decades. Calculate how many hours should average Joe work to buy 100 gallons of gasoline, to buy a fridge, to buy 100 kg of chicken breast now vs then.
Housing outside of cities has also risen considerably.
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“Just have well off parents”
They didn't gave me a cent. Just living with them and not paying rent and food meant I could save almost 100% of income. After 13 years I was able to buy apartment.
It’s extremely frustrating to me when people suggest this policy as if everyone has access to this privilege when most people, in the Bay area especially, don’t. (Hence the snark, for which I apologize, I am sure I have blind spots on privileges I had that you didn’t)
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> densification that humanity has used throughout its history. Yeah! Didn't the Romans, like, invent "concretum" for building 40 story condo towers? We densified throughout history; what gives now?
US code pretty much universally bans anything as dense as Roman cities. Part of it is cars, part of it is exclusionary zoning.
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Except that almost every landlord I've ever had has treated me like second-class citizen or a child, constantly invaded my privacy, and skimped on all the costs that you're supposed to be saving. No guests at any time. No candles. Inspections for "safety" every 1-2 weeks, often with no notice because of a contrived emergency. Wouldn't fix the freezer part of the refrigerator because the lease only said it has a refri…
You have had some weird ass f'd up landlords. I had 5 before buying and none were remotely that shitty. Sounds like a civil suit for invasion of privacy to me (at least in the US). And if I just got lucky, then stronger renters laws are needed.