Quote Originally Posted by benagain
How is not buying a house going to be a good investment? I'm not asking to be an asshole, I just want to know. It's my understanding that buying a house is much smarter than renting or leasing. You can rent for years and have nothing to show for it, but at least with buying you have some equity.

Ohh and I'm not looking forward to being old, but getting to retire would be nice. I'd love to golf and fish all day long and not worry about work. Sounds fun to me. I've allready settled down, now if I can figure out how to get away with not working....
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".