And even for those of us who might have the means or the marketable skills to get citizenship elsewhere, that only changes the tradeoff into creating new family by leaving all existing family.
This is just not true for many people. A home is an asset. When paying a mortgage, you build equity that can be recouped if you decide to sell, or which can be used as collateral for another loan. When renting, you are still paying a mortgage, except is the landlord’s and you own nothing. Rent prices can also change at any time and by large amounts, forcing renters to move. The cost of owning a home is much more stable and predictable.
Homes are also typically bought with a loan and a relatively small down payment, making them a leveraged asset. Eg, if you put down 30k on a 300k house and prices increase 5%, the value of your home just went up 15k. If you instead just put 30k in stocks, you would need an increase of 50% to get the same result.
Regardless, when it comes to housing, your primary concern should always be stability and not “profitability”.
This is one of the greatest myths out there. Renting usually comes out ahead by the numbers. Ramit Sethi has a lot to say on the topic, with a US focus. Ben Felix has the same perspective for the Canadian side. Home owners by and large aren’t honest with themselves about the total cost of ownership.
yeah i was gonna say, some dude published a (german) analysis of the total cost of buying a house / renting an apartment + investing in stocks for the same total yearly expenses and found that with the second option, you end up having more wealth at retirement age.
i can’t find the study rn but i’m sure i remember it.
it also makes sense intuitively since renting an apartment in a city uses much less resources overall. both in terms of material used for the building (since you share most of your walls with your neighbors) but also in terms of transport being significantly cheaper.
this is especially true if you live in cities with strong communal housing, like vienna.
Down payment on a house or pay the hospital for one child birth. Choose.
Not living in the US solves the hospital problem
Unfortunately that’s not an option for most people living in the US
And even for those of us who might have the means or the marketable skills to get citizenship elsewhere, that only changes the tradeoff into creating new family by leaving all existing family.
How about neither?
this is the way. renting a city apartment + investing in stocks for the same amount of monthly total expenses is more profitable
Line go down, rent go up. What do?
This is just not true for many people. A home is an asset. When paying a mortgage, you build equity that can be recouped if you decide to sell, or which can be used as collateral for another loan. When renting, you are still paying a mortgage, except is the landlord’s and you own nothing. Rent prices can also change at any time and by large amounts, forcing renters to move. The cost of owning a home is much more stable and predictable.
Homes are also typically bought with a loan and a relatively small down payment, making them a leveraged asset. Eg, if you put down 30k on a 300k house and prices increase 5%, the value of your home just went up 15k. If you instead just put 30k in stocks, you would need an increase of 50% to get the same result.
Regardless, when it comes to housing, your primary concern should always be stability and not “profitability”.
This is one of the greatest myths out there. Renting usually comes out ahead by the numbers. Ramit Sethi has a lot to say on the topic, with a US focus. Ben Felix has the same perspective for the Canadian side. Home owners by and large aren’t honest with themselves about the total cost of ownership.
Edit:
yeah i was gonna say, some dude published a (german) analysis of the total cost of buying a house / renting an apartment + investing in stocks for the same total yearly expenses and found that with the second option, you end up having more wealth at retirement age.
i can’t find the study rn but i’m sure i remember it.
it also makes sense intuitively since renting an apartment in a city uses much less resources overall. both in terms of material used for the building (since you share most of your walls with your neighbors) but also in terms of transport being significantly cheaper.
this is especially true if you live in cities with strong communal housing, like vienna.