Current Events > Anyone here plan on renting forever? Anything wrong with renting instead of

(+) Yeah! (+)

buying a home? I know if you aren't in California or New York then buying a house/condo is way easier due to cost of living/cost of homes being so much cheaper so it would make sense to buy but if you're living in one of those two states then you're fucked like I am (California/Bay Area). I am kinda stuck in my situation. Don't make enough to buy a home and making enough to afford rent but put very little in a savings account each month. I am living at home with people I don't care for so I want to leave ASAP but the thing holding me back is paying for an apartment to live in but not getting anything back in return once the lease is over. I could rent a room for $1,000/month which is the best option for me financially but I'll lose some privacy or rent a one bedroom place for around $1,800 to $2,200/month depending on the location but that would take around 60-70% of my take home pay.

There is literally no harm in it. Anyone who says otherwise is just projecting some weird insecurity or trying to get approval of their home purchase .

Ive actually known more people how regret buying houses because they could just live in a rental for less money, and their life would be the same.
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Here in SF it's more cost effective to rent actually lol
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The Bay Area is one of the most expensive areas to live in in the country. You really don't have very many options, especially if you're just starting out in terms of buying versus renting. You can either choose to live somewhere else, or accept that owning isn't an option in exchange for living exactly where you want to live. It's a premium price for a luxury item.
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You will never truly own anything in life and ownership is one of the most fullfilling things in life.
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Well, the goal is to build equity and make all that money you're paying in on the house worth something in the future. Paying rent is just giving someone money each month.
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If you're happy with renting and it's more financially safe for you today it's fine.

But the big downside is obviously you don't own it. So you're not able to upgrade the place yourself or sell it down the line.
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Yes, definitely, I plan on buying. There comes a point pretty quickly in my area of the country where renting starts to be just throwing money away. Unfortunately for me it was a necessary evil as a stop gap between living at home with the parents and being able to deal with the mortgage process. If I had a wife with the same pay as me I could probably get into the process pretty soon. On my own, I'm probably 5-6 years away at least.
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Rented for many years, finally decided I was probably going to be in this area for long enough that buying would be worthwhile. It's been a trying experience but overall it's pretty nice not really having to be accountable to anyone but yourself and having the freedom to do what you want with your own place. Monthly payments are a lot lower than what I was paying for rent, but the costs are made up for with the necessity to buy / repair appliances and get home improvement work done.
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You don't own any property anyway. The government can seize it from you any time.

pls posted...

You don't own any property anyway. The government can seize it from you any time.

Yes but if it comes down to that they will generally compensate you for it at least :\
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Hexenherz posted...

Yes but if it comes down to that they will generally compensate you for it at least :\

Or they can just jack up your tax assessment until you are basically renting from the state.

Its generally better to buy, but if there are some lifestyles where renting might make more sense.

Like, if you're career military and will be moving around every few years.
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If you can afford to own, and you're fairly certain you want to stay in the location you're in, buying is smarter than owning. Why give money to someone else when you can be using it to build equity for yourself?

That being said, it's incredibly stupid to stretch yourself thin financially just to say "I own something".
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bump

It really depends on the price of rent compared to how much you'd pay for a house(and the corresponding costs such as repairs, taxes, insurance, etc)

I actually dislike the whole "rent is just throwing money away" line.

If the numbers make sense to rent, then rent. At the end of the day, owning a home is partly a lifestyle decision
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In my area a mortage payment is a great deal cheaper than renting a similar sized dwelling.

It's just stupid to help pay someone else's equity up.

My property tax is almost 11,000 I owe 350,000 on the house... do I really own it?
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You can eventually pay less for a home if you're able to pay it off. Most home loans go for 30 years, but you never own your home because you have to pay property tax.

And the way that home prices are inflated in cities due to millionaires moving into your neighborhood and etc especially in big cities can mean you pay 5k/year on property tax for a crummy to decent place

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Buying isn't always the correct financial decision. In places where housing costs are just stupid, like the Bay Area, renting makes more sense.
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pls posted...

You don't own any property anyway. The government can seize it from you any time.

Truth. Thank you for saying it.
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Eventually you would pay more than the cost of owning the house and could never get that money back.

With the house, you can sell it or rent it out.

You basically are throwing away money.

is there like a minimum "i plan on living in the house for at least X years" that i should follow? thinking about getting a house since i'm getting tired of having to deal with neighbors and the noise they make
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FrozenXylophone posted...

Eventually you would pay more than the cost of owning the house and could never get that money back.

With the house, you can sell it or rent it out.

You basically are throwing away money.

It depends on how much your rent is. If you're paying really low rent, and you're investing the difference between rent and mortgage (including the extra fees associated with home ownership + down payment costs), it might end up working out for you.
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KnightofShikari posted...

is there like a minimum "i plan on living in the house for at least X years" that i should follow? thinking about getting a house since i'm getting tired of having to deal with neighbors and the noise they make

Depends on the cost of the house. Closing costs and agent fees can be a fairly significant amount of money, and if you buy a house and sell it a year later you're basically throwing that money away.
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I'd be paying less monthly for a mortgage on something I own compared to my current monthly rent once I save enough for a down payment
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Where I live it's much cheaper to rent than to buy, but obviously that will vary depending on where you are and the respective rental/purchasing markets.
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pls posted...

You don't own any property anyway. The government can seize it from you any time.

Somebody owns it, and you're not staying there very long after the property is seized from the landlord.

Owning a house is more of a long-term investment than anything else.
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