victor wrote:
|| Ok, ok, ok. My friends and family keep nagging at me to stop renting
|| and buy a house. I'm so sick of them droning on about points-this
|| and closing costs-that. But the more I think about, the less sense
|| it seems to make for me. Here's why:
||
|| 1. "You'll save a fortune on taxes." True. But the property taxes
|| will pretty much cancel out any savings you got on the income taxes.
||
|| 2. "You're throwing rent money down the toilet." True. In all
|| likelihood, your mortgage payment will be twice your rent. By the
|| time you pay it off, you'll be drinking Ensure, wearing Depends, and
|| too old to maintain the house. Then you'll be wanting to move back
|| to ... AN APARTMENT! By that time, an assisted living apartment.
|| And let's be realistic. You're NOT going to be like those power
|| couples in Money magazine who claim they're going to pay off the
|| mortgage in 5 years and retire in 10. Yeah, right.
||
|| 3. "It's one of the few things you buy that appreciate in value."
|| Assuming that you find someone who is willing to pay your inflated
|| selling price. Assuming that the neighborhood doesn't go down the
|| tubes. Assuming that the new house you buy will end costing as much
|| as you think it's going to (not!). Too many assumptions.
||
|| 4. Maintenance. I'm lucky if I have time to clean my apartment, let
|| alone a house. I've worked customer service for plumbing, HVAC, and
|| home maintenance companies before, and I hear how much people pay for
|| this stuff. In an apartment, it's all FREE.
||

Earth to dodo...it's in the rent which goes up if these costs escalate.




|| In the end, I suppose it's a matter of personal preference. But I do
|| wish my home-owning friends would cut out the holier-than-thou
|| attitude.