Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why You Should Never Buy a Home Again

jamesaltucher.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 99 posts

Re: Why You Should Never Buy a Home Again

#81

Post by billswift »

gr366 wrote: post #22

The title on the post itself (and the slug in the URL) is "Why I Am Never Going to Own a Home Again" (emphasis mine). In the article, the author states "there are many reasons to not buy a home," and the reasons are from his perspective, which presumably is what his friends are asking for. However, the title here on HN makes it sound like the author is suggesting nobody ever buy a home again — probably not his intent…

Since the author is the one who submitted it, why should you think the title here says anything that is not "his intent"?

Re: Why You Should Never Buy a Home Again

#82

Post by mkramlich »

A simpler point I didn't see emphasized is that even when you "own" a home you do not own it. You're renting it from the government, home owners association and utility companies. Disagree? Stop making payments to those three entities and we'll see how long it takes for men with guns to come and evict or arrest you. Owning is renting. Free your mind.

Re: Why You Should Never Buy a Home Again

#83

Post by billswift »

jaltucher wrote: post #66
justinph wrote: post #18

Life is not all about money! Buy a house because you want someplace to be your own, that you can customize, and really be part of a neighborhood, and not worry about asking a landlord for permission. I bought a house because all the apartments I looked at for the price were dumps, and in a house at least I had incentive to fix the stuff that made it a dump.

Thats why I divided the post between "financial" and "personal". The personal stuff is my own reasons, the "financial" stuff is why I think financially buying a home is a big mistake.

The financial aspects depend a lot on where it is. In and near the large urban areas, no, owning a home does not make financial sense. But in small towns, well away from the large cities, it is a different matter. Rents vary from one area to another much less than home prices do.

I moved in 2001 from the DC suburbs (College Park, MD) to Cumberland MD. The duplex I rented was about a third what it would have cost in College Park. Later, I bought both sides of the duplex, for less than a sixth of what it would have cost in College Park.

From what the Places Rated Almanac said, that sort of variation is normal across most of the country. Note that in my case I even stayed within the same state, so I didn't benefit from the regulatory and tax changes that occur in some inter-state moves.

Re: Why You Should Never Buy a Home Again

#84

Post by billswift »

mkramlich wrote: post #82

A simpler point I didn't see emphasized is that even when you "own" a home you do not own it. You're renting it from the government, home owners association and utility companies. Disagree? Stop making payments to those three entities and we'll see how long it takes for men with guns to come and evict or arrest you. Owning is renting. Free your mind.

I agree with your point; but there is a big practical difference between paying 2% of your house's value per year in taxes, versus the 10-to-20% that landlords usually charge.

Re: Why You Should Never Buy a Home Again

#85

Post by abalashov »

mkramlich wrote: post #82

A simpler point I didn't see emphasized is that even when you "own" a home you do not own it. You're renting it from the government, home owners association and utility companies. Disagree? Stop making payments to those three entities and we'll see how long it takes for men with guns to come and evict or arrest you. Owning is renting. Free your mind.

I agree about the other two, but the utility companies one seems hyperbolic; if I actually wanted to live in a place without electricity, running water, Internet access, etc. supplied by someone else's infrastructure - which I do not own - I think I could very easily cancel all of those and be fine.

Re: Why You Should Never Buy a Home Again

#87

Post by billswift »

jaltucher wrote: post #70
ajays wrote: post #50

.... and he ends with this sentence: By the way, this is going to sound like a contradiction: but I think housing is a great investment right now. Go figure.

Yeah, go buy a REIT or a housing-related stock. Then you haev all the investment benefits of owning a house EXCEPT - you don't have to pay extra taxes - no maintenance - you can sell any second you want. So go figure.

Anyone who takes advice from or goes into business with someone who could write "EXCEPT - you don't have to pay extra taxes - no maintenance - you can sell any second you want" is an idiot and deserves anything bad that happens as a result.

Re: Why You Should Never Buy a Home Again

#88

Post by mark_l_watson »

In general, I think that this is not good advice.

It is not a bad idea to buy a modest size home that meets your family's needs for a reasonable price.

As you get older and have hopefully had a good career, try to own at least two modest homes and become a landlord.

There is a good chance that we will see a lot of inflation in the next 10 years or so. If this happens, owning rental property may help to protect your assets.

Re: Why You Should Never Buy a Home Again

#89

Post by 16s »

Places I rented over the years either had music blaring next door or loud parties periodically or I could hear other couples having sex, cockroaches from neighbors, etc. (this was in the nicer areas).

I've had my fill of all that. Owning a home is just as cheap as renting one in my area. The peace and quiet I have is priceless.

Re: Why You Should Never Buy a Home Again

#90

Post by pshapiro »

orijing wrote: post #78
pg wrote: post #77

"Lets spell out very clearly why the myth of homeownership became religion in the United States. Its because corporations didn’t want their employees to have many job choices. So they encouraged them to own homes." If that was their plan (which I doubt), it wasn't very effective. Americans move much more frequently than people in most other countries.

Possibly true, but what if employees had the additional flexibility that being tied down to their homes prevented? I think you are confusing this effect with a more general bias towards mobility relative to other countries. The most recent housing market collapse has made America much slower at readjusting to restructuring of the economy--for example, workers in Florida can't easily sell off their homes to move to a…

What do you mean by, "Possibly true"?
Post reply on HN