Rufio wrote:
|| "victor" wrote in message
|| news ||| 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.
||
|| Last year, after refinancing (and dramatically reducing my interest
|| paid), I the tax I save on my interest payment is 25% more than my
|| real estate tax. In 2002, prior to refinancing, it was 80% more.
||
|||
||| 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.
||
|| 2&3 kinda go together - to benefit, you don't have to wait until the
|| mortgage is completely paid off. I've been in my house 5 years & I
|| have 23% equity, above the balance on the mortgage. To reduce the
|| risk of the neighbourhood depreciating & to pay off the mortgage
|| quicker, you.....errr pay the mortgage off quicker - take a 15,20 or
|| 25 year mortgage (or just take a 30 year mortgage & make double
|| payments when you can - although you probably won't get as good a
|| rate, that way)..
||
|||
||| 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.
||
|| I'm an exempt employee (software integration engineer) for my
|| company - I work as many hours as it takes, to get the job done -
|| last year I averaged between 60 & 70 hours a week, 2 weeks out of
|| every 4 on call, about 20 business trips & yes - my house needed
|| cleaning. But the total maintenance was replacing a roof tile ($60)
|| & replacing a water heater with a blown element ($0 - under
|| warranty). I also did some painting myself ($25 for paint).
||
|||
||| 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.
||
|| Before I bought my house, I lived in 11 different apartments & 2
|| condos in 8 years. I've been a renter and been a buyer & (for me)
|| there's no comparison. Not sure how old you are - but if you feel
|| that a mortgage will take forever to pay off, you might be quite
|| young - I'm 41YO & the remaining 14 years on my mortgage seems like
|| a few days. I'm in the process of buying land to build a $400,000
|| home - I'll probably end up with a 30 year mortgage for that (in 30
|| years I'll be 71).

As a houseowner myself, WHAT THE HELL is the point of spending THAT much for
a house when it takes you THAT long to pay it off? People can't understand
why, since we have paid off our mortgage, don't take out a NEW mortgage and
"move on up". Thanks to OUR attitude, I was able to 80% retire at the age of
42 and my wife will be entirely retired at 55. Guess you want to keep on
working those 60 to 70 hour weeks. Enjoy the rat race.



||
|| It may be that buying a house isn't for you - but it is for me,
|| that's all I can say. And I've met far more people, that were glad
|| they bought, rather than regretted it.