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The real cost of owning a home

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Re: The real cost of owning a home

#801

Post by mancerayder »

jandrewrogers wrote: post #715
what wrote: post #646

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, not really? If you have money to invest after rent, you’ll also have money to invest after mortgage payments.

Rent is much cheaper than the total monthly purchase costs in many locales. Literally thousands of dollars per month of net cash per month to investments in the renting scenario. And that cash appreciates at equity rates rather than debt rates. This is on top of being able to invest the down payment instead of spending it on a house. I have decades of data on this in a few locales (including Bay Area and Seattle) bas…

Run the numbers - mortgage with interest deduction, SALT deduction (property taxes apply), appreciation, add the principal as paying yourself back. Compare it to renting comparable home, with the rent going up with inflation (which in some places is being generous). After a few years, you'd be surprised how the math looks.

Re: The real cost of owning a home

#802

Post by tim333 »

thelastgallon wrote: post #615

Owning a home is as much responsibility as having infant which never grows up, can never be potty trained. There are thousands of things that need to continuously monitored and maintained. Time, money, mindspace and the stress are the huge operational costs of owning a home. Property taxes, insurance and repairs/maintenance, these three are increasing YoY will cost 3X the initial cost over a 30 year mortgage. There i…

I'm not sure that's true. I own a flat in London and a couple in Spain. With the Spanish ones I have to do something every few years. I gather infants require more maintenance than that.

Re: The real cost of owning a home

#803

Post by joshstrange »

iamalizard wrote: post #622
joshstrange wrote: post #361

> I bought my home in Auburn, WA for $321k, and sold it a few years later for $333k. After all the costs to buy and sell it, I probably lost more money on it than I would have spent renting an apartment. Any half-competent realtor will tell you that if you aren't going to stay in a house for 3+ years you will probably lose money on closing costs/fees. Contrast this with my house, I stayed in it for ~6 years and the h…

> the "included" maintenance is dog shit In my experience it usually is. > Right as I was moving out they wanted to add a $25/mo pet fee If my landlord did that, I'd be quite surprised as he obviously knew I have 2 small dogs when I moved in and they haven't done any damage. Is your landlord managing lots of properties, not just your own? It's the type of added fee I'd expect from a faceless company, not a person I'v…

The place in question for the pet fee was a corporate place. I’ve paid deposits for having a pet before but never a flat rate added fee to every month.

As for the WiFi, yeah, they told me they could raise it to 20 and didn’t understand that I had multiple devices that I didn’t want on WiFi or literally didn’t have WiFi (a handful of servers). The WiFi was the captive portal BS so it was hell to try and get anything headless connected to it. I was so glad to get out of that apartment.

Re: The real cost of owning a home

#804

Post by pickleglitch »

SirMaster wrote: post #266
pickleglitch wrote: post #150

The cost of having to live under the boot of a landlord is immeasurable. The freedom of not having a landlord is priceless.

I have been renting 15 years and have never once even really thought about my landlord... I pay them on the portal and if something needs fixing I put in a maintenance request and they get it fixed. That's all i've ever thought about with them.

I rented for somewhere around 20 years before I was finally able to buy a house, and I hated every minute of it. I've had a landlord (in Arizona) tell me that it's normal for an air conditioner to only be able to reduce the temp by 10 degrees. I've had a landlord decide to convert the complex into condos and tell me I would have to let potential buyers into my home before my lease was even up. I can't even remember all the times I've had disputes over various repairs.

There was a period of about 5 or 6 years where each year I would get a raise at work, only to have my rent increase by almost the same amount, so I could never get ahead.

So yeah, ymmv, but for me I'll never rent again.

Re: The real cost of owning a home

#806

Post by bell-cot »

alistairSH wrote: post #788
bell-cot wrote: post #757

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why not get rid of... Soil erosion.

There are other ground covers and plant options that don’t require weekly mowing. Creeping junipers and native bunch grasses come to mind.

True. But on a large and very steep hillside - "2/3rd of an acre, but most of it is a 45 degree hill" - it can be extremely difficult to replace the plants holding onto the soil, without experiencing horrible erosion during the transition.

Re: The real cost of owning a home

#807

Post by tootie »

lorecore wrote: post #577
pc86 wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but that requires you predicting your life 30 years in the future. This is true, but the vast majority of people - especially in the US - don't move around the country or even state every few years. One of the biggest, perhaps the biggest, pro of renting is that you're not tied down to one place for very long. It's pretty rare that someone buys a house then is suddenly forced to move hours away.

Moving around a lot incurs its own costs. Time, transportation, movers, deposits (which you're unlikely to get fully returned), new furniture... I think it's an additional "hidden" cost to renting that doesn't get talked about much.

The cost of moving from owned home to owned home is far higher. Brokers, lawyers and all the associated closing costs can be huge. And you still have to pay movers and worry about new furniture.

Re: The real cost of owning a home

#808

Post by vips7L »

bottlepalm wrote: post #723
tim-tday wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mortgage is locked in for 30years

Taxes goes up, insurance goes up, repair costs goes up, and with a 30 year mortgage you lose like 50% the value of the home in interest payments.

Those are all rolled into rent too.

Re: The real cost of owning a home

#809

Post by gilbetron »

asdff wrote: post #473
m463 wrote: post #467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think home ownership is an "every single weekend" thing unless you bought a fixer-upper. Honestly, it sounds like you enjoy it. If you are doing it with that frequency I think you just are "into" your house.

Depends where you live. In the midwest you might legitimately need to mow 3x a week and you might have a huge lot. If you say screw it and let it go to knee high weeds, city might show up and cut your grass and fine you for it.

I live in the midwest and there never has been a time where any lawn I owned, nor was owned by anyone that I know, needed mowing 3x a week. You might like to do it to keep a perfectly manicured lawn, but it definitely isn't needed.

Re: The real cost of owning a home

#810

Post by qsxfthnkp2322 »

I bought a house to move close to my big tech job

Now I have no job as I was reorged to a new manager who made it his first mission to fire me

How do I pay for the mortgage

That’s the real cost of owning a home as a swe these days.

Management at these companies is so out of touch with reality

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