Shawn Hearn wrote in message
...
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.

Not necessarily. Depends on what your financial
situation is and your mortgage interest payments.

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.

I live in an apartment. Two weeks ago, I walked in my apartment
and I found my air conditioner on when I had left it off before I
went to work. I thought someone was in my apartment and I
was right. A maintenance man was there to fix a busted pipe
that leaked water on a part of my carpet and down into the
apartment below mine. I didn't have to spend a dime on this repair

Corse you did, that is built in to the rent you pay.

and I didn't even have to call to request it.

Hardly the end of civilisation as we know it. And with
plenty of rental situations, you may well have to call
more than once to get that sort of thing fixed too.

If my apartment was my own condo, odds are, I
would have been stuck with a costly plumbing bill

But that would be a question of paying for what needs
to be done when it needs to be done, rather than
paying for the possibility upfront, built into the rent.

and more damage to my carpet.

Which would normally be covered by your insurance.

When my roof leaked, a fix was as simple as calling
my landlord's on-site maintenance people. I know not all
landlord-tenant relationships are so good, but I was very
careful before I signed my lease to investigate that issue.

You can never be sure it will stay that way,
particularly when the ownership changes.

And you have no real control over what
happens to the rent over time either.

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.

Not necessarily true. Most real estate does rise in value
over time, but there are no guarantees. If you buy in a
neighborhood that looks fine when you buy, but turns bad
a few years later, the value of your house might decline.

And you can be absolutely certain that you will never get
any capital appreciation on that amount you spend on rent.

Its obvious where the best odds lie.

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.

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.

Yup. I suppose eventually I will buy a house, but
for now, its just too convient to live in an apartment,

Sure, its got some real advantages,
particularly if you move around much.

plus I could never afford a house in the area
where I live and I love my neighborhood.

Thats a pretty dubious claim unless it isnt possible to buy
an individual apartment rather than a block of them etc.

All my utilities except cable TV and phone are included in my
rent and I am lucky enough to live in a rent controlled building.

Not relevant to the general question when most dont.

There is no way I could live in such a nice place if I had to own my unit.

Sure, there are certainly a few situations where stupid
politicians have essentially bought votes that way.