Quote Originally Posted by Breukelen advocaat
You have to put a FORTUNE into maintenance, or DIY - which takes a lot of time and effort. You also have to pay property taxes, and if the housing market goes bad, you're stuck with it. When you want to sell, you'll have to upgrade the roof, new plumbing, heating, etc. No, I'd rather pay rent and let the landlord do all of that. The mortgage payments alone on a small house would have cost much more than the rent we pay. We don't pay for heat, hot water, maintenance, or any of that.

My wife and I were thinking of buying a house in the 1990's. Not doing that was the smartest thing we ever did. You can live in an apartment and if there is a problem, you just knock on the super's door.

If you live in New York City, in an apartment, you're as good as the owner of the building. Where does Trump live? In Trump Tower! All the rich live in apartments. If I won the lottery, I'd live in a luxury hotel. That's what luxury is - not having work to do and be a slave to your home.

One more thing - we could have easily afforded a house, so it's not "sour grapes".
No I figured you had a good reason for not wanting to buy. It must all depend on the market you're in. I'm sure that in cities it's much cheaper to rent, but when it comes to living in the burbs, then buying seems to be the best bet I've found. If you can get a decent interest rate, then mortgage payments on a house is much less than renting. I've been looking around and to rent a house is anywhere from $1000 a month to $3000. Same house that rents for 3000 can be bought and have payments of less than a thousand. Taxes are a bitch, but if you're smart you can find an area with cheap taxes. Considering we have a dog and smoke, my best bet is to buy. The plan is to purchase a house, live there a while building equity...sell it for more (unless you're on a sinkhole property only goes up and up in FL) and move back home to NC to get a bigger house with more land with lower taxes and cheaper payments. This will all work out great as long as I can keep my job. I can move back home where cost of living is cheaper and still get the same paycheck I'm getting now.