• rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works
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    2 days ago

    I tell my soon-to-leave-the-nest kids:

    Rent is the most you will pay every month. The mortgage is the least you will pay every month.

    I’m loving them being here as full grown adults and enjoy my time with them and with our particular house they are seeing that lesson play out in real time. Some big expenses and I am the DIY dude. I don’t fuck with (big) electric or gas though, that shit can really backfire.

    • The_v@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Rent vs mortgage - gotta put a caveat on that one.

      Renting = landlord gets all the money but has to maintain the property.

      Mortgage - bank gets all the money and you get a partial refund if you sell. You pay for the upkeep. A mortgage is not really an “investment”, you usually lose money on the deal if you live there. It’s cheap rent from the bank.

      It basic math to see which one is better long term. Usually the mortgage wins because of of the partial return. However if you can’t do the upkeep yourself, renting is often a better financial decision.

      There have been times when renting was the smarter financial decision. Like the housing bubble in 2003-2007. You could rent places for 1/2 what it would cost to buy them per month.

    • Bgugi@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      That decision is true today, but realistically your rent will grow much faster than your mortgage (plus escrow) payment, and your mortgage payment goes away.

    • prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      The other side of that is that my mortgage, even with rising property taxes and my house appreciating wildly in value, tracks less than renting.

      If I could rent a place for the price of my mortgage with the cost rising at the level my mortgage does … I’d rent all day long

      • rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works
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        2 days ago

        Yeah, that’s the thing. The market went upside down. Maybe 1993? Before that renting made sense even from a financial perspective in many areas. But now when housing is double or treble inflation? Nope. Sink money into real property at your first opportunity.

        We have fucked up the entire “developed” world so much that if you start poor you stay poor and housing is a large part of that equation.

        • prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works
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          1 day ago

          In my lifetime interest rates on mortgages went from high teens to the 3.whatever I have.

          Home values skyrocketed and now the expectation seems to be this must continue.

          Honestly I’m happier to pass my house on to my kid than turn a profit on it.

          Now if HE buys a house and inherits mine … I hope he turns a fat profit on it lmao

          • rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works
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            1 day ago

            Right? My parents were ecstatic to get 11% on the home I grew up in. Now my mom’s retirement condo? three dot whatever like you said.