Kandahar

As luck would have it, Yahoo News had an article today exploring this very topic: Why renting can be better than homeownership. Check it out.

Renting Makes More Financial Sense Than Homeownership - Yahoo! Real Estate

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DivineComedy

When I moved out of my last apartment in the 80's, the hazmat team was cleaning the upstairs apartment. The toilet had stopped up and the occupants filled the tub. The trash was ceiling high in the living room. I would rather be homeless in the woods than have to rent an apartment under a potential idiot.

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“[59.14] They will not fight against you in a body save in fortified towns or from behind walls; their fighting between them is severe, you may think them as one body, and their hearts are disunited; that is because they are a people who have no sense.”

Yeah, a wall and a border patrol will protect us. {sound of laughter}

DeeJayH

er, rent a house?

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These days it seems that the deadliest place on earth for an American to be is inside the womb. - Joshua P. Allem

Delphi

I believe home ownership has many positives. I see the largest problem connected to the mortgage crisis has to do with the 80/20 loans. There is nothing wrong with having to work hard, save, then buy a home one can afford. Of course people are going to hedge the bet that they will be able to pay that 20% second mortgage with variable rate. We are a nation of spenders v savers. We have been sold a dream; an immediate gradification.

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American

The govt should neither encourage nor discourage it.

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It's Obama's fault!

Gabby

That article is detailing out a lot of very new stuff in the mortgage business - the things that are about to drag our country down a financial toilet drain. But go ahead and dump your extra money into the stock market that's about to crash and that every financial expert says will be a long road to recovery regardless of a bailout.

In any event, I made a sound investment. If I was in big trouble right now, I could draw on my equity and that's not something I could do as a renter. I also don't like the things that renter/author seems to not care about with renting. I *do* care if I can paint my walls or have a dog or plant shrubs or what have you. I live rural so I have no neighborhood restrictions and would never invite that invasion into my world. So it's different for me. I hate apartments and the noise factor and the lack of privacy. I rented houses for years and have been kicked out of two when the landlord decided to sell. And they can come along and decide your monthly payment is going up by 30% if they want to. I know what my mortgage payment is going to be. As a renter, don't kid yourself, you are paying the property taxes. You're just handing it to the landlord and letting him take the check to the county/city/state. You aren't getting out of paying anything. My property taxes where I live are nil, so that isn't even an issue for me. I probably pay less in a year on property tax than most people spend renting movies.

DeeJayH

if you have a mortgage, what equity do you have?
unless you purchased many many years ago
most people i know are upside down due to the market decline, which is nationwide, for the most part, to some degree.
maybe you were not cut in half like myself, but banks are also undercutting appraisals, under the cover of the home being 'in a declining market,' which takes a good 10% or so off the actual market value, obviously affecting the 'equity' you could draw on

not to mention so many people are now in trouble because they used their equity as a credit card to ride out those tough times, that took longer to ride out than expected

sazerac

It's best to rent and have your landlord leave you the fully paid for building when he dies.

RightinNYC

This is why our frat always rented instead of bought. We could leave a place looking like that and it didn't affect our "equity"

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Curious George

I don't like the idea of the government encouraging or discouraging anything through tax code manipulation.