You must log in or register to comment.
It’s really bad for anyone who needs to move out of a house they can barely afford.
In 2008, people that had multiple properties they were buying and selling were financially crippled when the market dropped out from under them.
This happened even to middle class people who were buying cheap housing and selling it as their only income. At the time, housing was still affordable enough that upper middle class people could make a living doing that.
No one who had a house they planned on staying in for a long time, who kept their job, felt that crunch.
Very much like a 401k that takes a hit when you’re 30. On paper you lost money but in reality you’d never notice. The market always bounces back.
At least, until it doesn’t. 😬
This happened even to middle class people who were buying cheap housing and selling it as their only income. At the time, housing was still affordable enough that upper middle class people could make a living doing that.
Definitely don’t feel any pity for them. Market speculation is always risky, even if the market you are trading in is “safe” or “risk-free”. I especially don’t feel bad at people speculating on a good like housing that 100% of people need.
No one who had a house they planned on staying in for a long time, who kept their job, felt that crunch.
These are the only ones to pity. They may have lost their job because of the economic conditions, and been forced to move to another place to get another job. So in trying to sell their old place to be able to buy a new place these folks suffered the same difficulties unloading their property as the speculators.
Everyone I know keeps telling me to buy a house I stead of renting a “luxury” apartment in a big city. I lived I. NYC for 5 years and was paying anywhere from $2500-2700/month for a studio apartment (anywhere from like 400-600 SQ ft). I just moved down to Downtown Miami and got a place for $2600/month in an apartment complex that is truly luxury compared to what they call “luxury” in Manhattan.
Everyone keeps telling me that I’m stupid because I’m not building equity and I’m just throwing money away. My parents own 5 properties (both of their parents houses and a rental property my grandfather owned, their own house, and a small cabin in PA), and in the past two months they’ve had to put a new sewer line in and a new gas line, along with a new heater into my dad’s parents house because it sat empty for a few years and now friends of the family are moving in. It was weeks of back and forth with the city and the furnace people. It cost about $15k. They also had to re-shingle that house. My mom has roofers working on the house that was her parents. That was about $10 grand. Our shower broke about 2 months back and since my dad didn’t want to pay people he decided to do it himself… Which took like 5-6 days.
When something breaks in one the places I live in, I put in a maintenance ticket and it’s fixed in a day. I’ve had ACs break and a dishwasher break, and they were fixed in like 2 days. I didn’t have to spend a penny or lift a finger.
My buddy spent 80 grand on a cabin about 20 minutes from where we grew up and had put about another 60-70 grand into it and he said he’s nowhere near finished.
Who’s the crazy one now?
12 months of rent at 2500 per month is about 30,000 per year. In 5 years you’ll have paid 150,000 and have nothing to show for it and nowhere to live. Your buddy will have spent the same, admittedly maybe more, but will have a roof over his head that can be passed down for generations or sold to recover se of the money spent.
Paying rent is just paying off someone else’s mortgage. Why would you rather pay for someone else’s loan instead of getting your own?
Edit: TPS’s most recent comic actually touches on my point http://www.threepanelsoul.com/comics/1695521525-843.png
Your rent is more than my mortgage, and while it’s not a very fair comparison, I live in the Midwest and housing here is cheaper, you’re still paying 5-7 times as much per square foot as I’m paying. So let’s balance it out, even if my costs doubled I would be paying half what you’re paying per square foot.
And yeah, over the next 15 years I’ll probably spend 10-15k in repairs.
I’m still spending significantly less per year.
That’s not to say you’re a sucker. Renting works for some people, some times it’s the only option you have. I have a stable career in a city I have no intention on ever leaving. If both of those things aren’t true sometimes it’s easier to rent.
You’re still paying for those repairs, you’re paying the taxes on the property, if utilities are included you’re paying for those too. Your landlord is absolutely not cutting you a deal on any of that stuff. The difference is you’re paying monthly, and upfront, and the difference goes to your landlord. Your landlord is also charging you enough they even after all of that, he still makes a profit.
I’m paying all at once when it’s needed, and I don’t spend anything extra, well at least no more then my wife demands, lol.
Crazy? Nobody.
This is one thing that people who dont own forget. Shit breaks. Thats why the bank will refuse you a $2400 a month mortgage when your paying $3200 in rent. In the middle of winter when the hot water heater shits the bed, you will miss a payment to fix it. What about next month when the cars transmission explodes? Thats why banks need you to prove so hard you can cover a mortgage.
You are losing money long term for convenience and freedom and thats fine so long as you’re aware thats what you’re doing.
There’s a lot to be said for convenience and freedom.
psst, hey buddy
what’s it do?
you wanna buy a house?
Gonna use “what’s it do” as a response to “hi” now
I’m really just considering going out into the wilderness and punching trees until I get blocks to build my own house.
Basic simplifcation: A large amount of future income for people is going to go towards a house. It’s not so much that the house price not going up causes the collapse in QOL but that it’s a sign of it’s falling or in the case of right now not keeping up. There is a total of 12 trillion dollars owed on mortgages in the US, in a country that’s gdp is around 26 trillion and the average mortgage has somewhere around 15 years left it’s easy to see how that ends up being a reflection of bad things.
