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Originally Posted by truth411
 Sorry I have to disagree with you here. You are ignoreing that different people are in different stages of life. For an example, I am single, Not married and no children, I don't need 4 bedrooms and 2 bathroom and 3 car garage. Right now I am in an apartment, the benifts is that I don't have $4,000 a year of property taxes to pay. I don't have waste money on interest rates and insurance either and maintenance is much cheaper. Don't get me wrong, I have the money to buy a house at any time. But lets be real here, with ones morgage payment, roughly HALF of it goes to the actual principle depending on what type of loan you get, the other half is just burned away (intrest rates, insurance, property taxes). IMHO people should stop looking at a house as soley finacial investment, but a place one raise there family for the next 20-30 years, you can't put a price tag on that. Looking at from a strictly financial side, Renting an apartment and investing is far more effiecient, when looking at strict numbers. |
As a single person you don’t buy a 3000 SQ FT 4 bedroom 3 stall garage house in an expensive tax district. You buy a much less expensive 1800 SQ FT 3 or 2 bedroom house with a one or 2 stall garage in a reasonable tax district such as a city school district, if you don’t have kids there is no need to worry too much about the school district. You itemize your deductions on your taxes including your mortgage interest.
I never had kids although I did get married. I bought my first little house when I was 23. I sold it 4 years later and made $20,000 after realtor fees. I sold my second house again after 4 years and made an additional $20,000. I’m on my 3rd house at 45 worth a little over $250,000 and will have it paid off in 5 years. As long as you keep up your credit score you will always get low interest rates. You should also always try to make extra payments to pay down the principal quicker so you pay less interest in the long run. Granted in this economy at this point in time you can’t expect much if any appreciation for a few years but you will build equity.
I don’t want to debate this much more but my grandmother had the same attitude as you do and she died penny less having always rented and never built any equity. In 5 more years I will own the home I’m in and then my options are wide open, if I get tired of the rat race I can quit my tuff job and work menial jobs to simply pay the utilities and food.
It may make sense to rent for many people but don’t under estimate the value of buying your own home.