The Home Ownership Thread

[Fueco]

I'm not sure the significance but we bought in 2012.

If had 10k the month I graduated high school, I'd have been worth more than my parent.

Can we at least agree that we’re better off having bought instead of renting? That was my original point after all.

I haven’t looked at all of the houses around here, but our next door neighbors bought in 2014, and their house has just about doubled in value.

 

[Piobaire]

I've never done a breakdown, or read a breakdown, but didn't Omega just post one that indicated renting would probably be better in the Denver area?

My view of personal finances is you decide what feels the best for your situation and then come up with the way to financially optimize it. Personal finances IMO, as I keep saying, is about more than just the math. Make your choices then use some math in optimizing how to implement your choices. It seems that's what you and your wife are doing.

 

[Piobaire]

Who the hell would dump their housing money into the S&P? Isn't the better comp Interest Rate vs. Money Market return?

For instance, our 3% mortgage rate is lower than our 4.4% from Marcus so we have cash idle.

We've had this very discussion here more than once and I know it's a common discussion on some finance/investment fora. I think maybe @otc once did some maths on this?

 

[brokencycle]

If only someone had posted a link to a rent vs buy calculator that had 20 or so variables.

 

[Fueco]

I've never done a breakdown, or read a breakdown, but didn't Omega just post one that indicated renting would probably be better in the Denver area?

Not for us.There is no one size fits all approach. Also, Boulder’s housing market is way hotter than Denver or most other parts of the metro area.

“Buying saves you $670,000”.

With no intention of moving, buying makes more sense that renting.

If you can’t stay put, by all means rent.

 

[Piobaire]

Not for us.There is no one size fits all approach. Also, Boulder’s housing market is way hotter than Denver or most other parts of the metro area.

I keep saying it's all about personal choice.

Per Omega's link, renting would make even more financial sense in Boulder.

 

[brokencycle]

Hindsight is 20/20 so of course my ex post facto reasoning makes me a genius.

 

[otc]

Who the hell would dump their housing money into the S&P? Isn't the better comp Interest Rate vs. Money Market return?

For instance, our 3% mortgage rate is lower than our 4.4% from Marcus so we have cash idle.

Why wouldn't you?

It isn't really housing money after all...it is just money.

 

[jbarwick]

So I have been reading all this BS with the lens of buying a house and/or keeping down payment in the S&P vs. MM.

Now I see some are going back to the calculator thing where you plug in rent vs. mortgage in the market. Understand the difference now...

 

[venividivicibj]

With no intention of moving, buying makes more sense that renting.

If you can’t stay put, by all means rent.

As a general rule, is just not true... its VERY ymmv, depending on where you live.

You also keep bringing up SF and Denver (very hot housing markets), like these are typical of the US as a whole. Also - do you expect housing to appreciate at the same pace for the next decade(s)?

 

[brokencycle]

As a general rule, is just not true... its VERY ymmv, depending on where you live.

You also keep bringing up SF and Denver (very hot housing markets), like these are typical of the US as a whole. Also - do you expect housing to appreciate at the same pace for the next decade(s)?

Someone posted a tweet yesterday about how deaths will start outpacing births in the US in <15 years based on updated demographic trends. That probably is going to impact housing prices just a bit if the population starts shrinking.

 

[Texasmade]

Someone posted a tweet yesterday about how deaths will start outpacing births in the US in <15 years based on updated demographic trends. That probably is going to impact housing prices just a bit if the population starts shrinking.

So I better sell my house now and start renting to take advantage of this in 20 years.

 

[Fueco]

As a general rule, is just not true... its VERY ymmv, depending on where you live.

You also keep bringing up SF and Denver (very hot housing markets), like these are typical of the US as a whole. Also - do you expect housing to appreciate at the same pace for the next decade(s)?

Yes, YMMV. It’s personal choice.

I chose to live where I do, just like I chose to move out of the Bay Area.

I’d have said the same thing about house prices in the Bay Are thirty years ago. Surely that trend wasn’t going to continue!

 

[Gibonius]

The other "personal choice" factor that's not really weighed in the calculator is simply property availability for the particular type of housing you want. There's a lot fewer single family homes available for rent than for purchase.

Plus, if you actually like to be able to modify your property, that pretty much locks you into owning.


I ran the numbers for my place and it said I'm saving almost two million dollars over 30 years by buying when I did vs renting at current prices. Not exactly a fair comparison considering prices and mortgage rates have also gone up, but I'm happy with that decision. Renting in my neighborhood is currently more than double my mortgage, and there's only about two properties that I've seen up for rent in the last decade.


It's definitely good to question the conventional wisdom that buying is always better than renting. Too many younger people act like they're getting totally screwed by not being able to buy, and that's not necessarily true.

 

[Texasmade]

Yes, YMMV. It’s personal choice.

I chose to live where I do, just like I chose to move out of the Bay Area.

I’d have said the same thing about house prices in the Bay Are thirty years ago. Surely that trend wasn’t going to continue!

Most cost effective choice is obvious. Just be homeless.