Unless you plan on being a parasite (landlord 🤮) there seems to be less and less incentives to own your home in this country. You're taking on a massive amount of debt that spans decades, and if you fail to make the payments then the home is seized and you're fucked. Have a sudden medical issue that drains all of your finances and puts you further in debt? You're losing your house.
There's also the issue of increasingly common natural disasters, as we're seeing in Florida and the Gulf coast, and wildfire regions.
Insurance is a scam as always so you can't count on that either. Freak storm sends a tree through the roof? You're fucked.
You have to contend with American houses (especially newer) being poorly made. Houses are being built with the cheapest possible materials by the cheapest possible labor by the scummiest companies who love to cut corners and do half assed jobs.
Depending on where you live you might have to deal with ridiculous restrictions or laws like HOAs. You're subject to the whims of the shittiest boomers who have nothing better to do with their time than fuck with you. Turns out your new neighbor is a fuckwad? Congrats, you're stuck with him for possibly the rest of your life. Hopefully he won't shoot your children or poison your pets.
Someone I know recently bought a house that ended up being a disaster. They were so happy to finally be free of the bullshit that comes with renting but that quickly faded. Despite having 3 independent inspections before closing on the house, there ended up being several critical issues that were totally unnoticed or ignored by the inspectors (who were paid a lot of money for their inspections also) and never brought up by the sellers. The foundation has problems, the plumbing has to be completely redone, the roof has to be replaced, and there's some other stuff I'm forgetting too. This is costing them tens of thousands of dollars and it's possible there's still other problems that haven't been discovered. They considered going after the previous sellers for withholding knowledge of the issues but their lawyer said it wasn't worth it.
You also have to worry about the possibility of the government eminent domaining your property to build a new 28 lane highway.
Renting fucking sucks but at least if something goes wrong with the building you're not on the hook for it and your entire financial everything isn't chained to it. Maybe this is just high grade copium because I'll never be able to afford home ownership.
What do you think?
I'm a homeowner; owned a starter home that i bought for 220k, and recently bought a brand new construction for 420k. Haven't had any significant issues of any sort with either home. Just had to replace some applicances here and there, also old home had a small plumbing leak in the basement, thats about it.
Pros:
- Mortgage tax reduction, saves thousands IIRC
- Steady payment every month, for 30 years. No rent increases. Possibility of property tax hikes, but its not gonna be more than a couple hundred maybe? Maybe insurance could go up too, by a few bucks a month?
- You are building equity; If you need a loan in the future, you can use a HELOC for a very low interest rate.
- One day it will all be over
Cons:
- Yeah, maintenance. I personally haven't had it too bad, though
- Urge to decorate can lead to bad spending. Just spent like 3k on our yard last month for trees/bushes. But you kinda make it back via property values if you decide to sell in the future/borrow against it.
- Buying and selling is a big pain in the ass. Never want to move again.
I fucking love my house sorry to anyone who has a bad one
I wish I could invite you all over for hugs and snacks it's cozy as hell
we bought cause we wanted space to give to trans people without homes, without needing permission from a landlord. and our house is already out of bedrooms, so that was a success.
Renting fucking sucks but at least if something goes wrong with the building you're not on the hook for it and your entire financial everything isn't chained to it.
I genuinely do like this about renting, what’s stupid is that rent tends to cost MORE than a mortgage even though you don’t own anything. If rent was like, 1/4th of a comparable mortgage I’d be perfectly happy renting forever.
