I'm very glad I own my home. Vegas was a much cheaper city to live in when I moved here than it is now. I bought my home in 2018, refinanced in 2020 at 2.8%. The cost of living here is going up a lot, but my housing costs locked in. I pay just $1200/month when you include the escrow for taxes and insurance. Renting a similar home would be a lot more expensive.

 

Since we're talking real estate, the LA fire homes are being bought out by ultra-rich anonymous investors and developers. Just as predicted.

 

Yup! Its a big opportunity

 

We have owned fare more houses than you have and certainly know the values of having a home when it works. I'm not against house buying. But what I'm trying to say is buying a house is not always a win when compared to renting. It's not a beneficial solution for everyone/every situation. My first post responded to james was to add to his comment about the cost of having bought something fly/float. So I said even something like homes, that are not even mobile, you can still make money for not buying them. Is it a good recommended move? That depends on locations and people. Of course you can always take a loss and get out or rent it out. Sounds so easy, doesn't it? Take my friend case for example when the house peaked at 1.8M and now hovering at 1.5M. If someone got in during the peak time and now needs to get out, can s/he just swallow 300k? Can s/he rent it out? Can s/he afford this and another mortgage? Not so easy or even feasible, is it? You said you have a family to look out for. Sure add that to the picture. Someone like you for instance just lost a job and now will have to look for another job elsewhere. How is it going to work out now? Your kids used to go to a good school/district. What to do now? Move to a cheaper area/school district?
Like I said earlier, buying a house is usually a good financial move, but it's not always a win or big win.
I'm sure you can find cheaper places in that area but I don't think you know the bay areas and living condition there.
Sometimes it's not about what you want to do but whether it's feasible to do what you want to do and still keep your current interests/values.

 

It is not always a win financially, but I would still argue its always a win over renting from a lifestyle perspective unless you are only in an area or need a certain type of housing for a short amount of time. I just have no interest in ever living in a home that is someone else's property where I have to abide by their wishes while I live there. Financially its a long term thing, if you're not going to be able to live in a property or own a property for more than 5 years its not going to work out positively, probably.

Theres a flaw in your logic, and its that you're not factoring in equity or someone's financial security. if you have NO money, then you shouldn't be a homeowner, certainly not a homeowner of a 7 figure home. lets say that person bought the house when it peaked for $1.8M, they should have put 20% down, thats $360,000, so they should only owe $1,440,000 on it. So if they have to sell it for $1.5M, they are only "eating" $55,000 outside of the equity in the house assuming they paid down no principal at all. So, they're eating "$300,000 in loss" but only on paper, as that equity was tied up in the house anyways.

Again, if that person has bought a $1.8M home they should not be in a position where they immediately cannot pay for it as soon as they lose their job. Plus, if they rent they would have a lease they need to break and they wouldn't be able to get approved for another rental because they have no job. So...what are they going to do?

I come across these scenarios all the time as I do this for a living. We just went through all of these layoffs in the DC area and lots of people even though they have been laid off aren't desperate to sell their houses because they don't have to be.

People can afford what they can afford. I would rather live in a smaller home in a lesser area that I own and am in control over than rent someone else's home in a more expensive area.

Bringing it back to cars, its not unlike leasing vs buying. To me leasing for the monthly payment when you can't afford the higher monthly payment of buying s problematic. But, I don't dislike leasing the same way I dislike renting a home because as long as I pay I am in control. If I don't want to give the car back I just buy it. What I don't like is somebody being able to tell me I can't continue living somewhere we want to continue living.

 

100% 1111GS. The home that we just sold in the Bay Area would take, assuming normal parameters, well over 15K per month to service, probably closer to 20K. Were we to rent it, we'd likely have been able to get around 6K to 7K in rent. We could depreciate the home for tax purposes, with obvious future capital gain consequences, plus we'd still be on the hook for taxes etc. And the buyer of our home is now paying around 30K in property taxes when we were paying around 10k because of Prop 13 (we bought that house in 2001). So in our market, the rent to mortgage delta can be huge. Even in the bay area there are only so many people who can service 15 to 20K per month on their home payments and taxes etc. We have friends, professionals making professional incomes, who could not afford to buy so they rented.

 

But...do you rent? I'm not disputing that in that market its cheaper to rent.

 

No, and I never said that I did. I'm discussing why people who would also rather buy if they could might find themselves largely unable to.

 

Theres a difference between being unable to buy and not preferring to buy. That was my point. Owning your own home is always better than renting, it just may be that owning it isn't cheaper than renting it.

 

First, it looks like we just fundamentally disagree. There is no situation in the world where I wouldn't want to own. I've spent $15,000 on HVACs in the past 3 years... I don't regret a penny of it, nor am I mad I had to do it. I do agree that it is 100% inflation proof, a mortgage payment.... but my insurance is super cheap and so are property taxes... dirt cheap. West Knoxville is always going to be expensive, it's never going back. It was always the nicest part of town but over the last 15 years or so it has exploded, including and especially real estate. Very, very rich people are moving here in droves and they want places to live....

I really don't care... I've made a fortune off my home and that's that, bottom line. There is no situation where I'd rather rent unless I were a flight attendant or something and even a friend or two FAs I know own versus rent.

You're not hearing me... It's called "making money off of real estate" while living there. My house is worth 150-175% more than it was 7 years ago when I bought it and it's been that way for several years now. It will still continue to rise in value. That's just good real estate in general. It's not inflation (7 years isn't) and realtor fees, realtor fees???? Lol.

 

When I was young and single I rented. It gave me the freedom to easily and quickly relocate, accept promotions and change jobs. When married and starting a family owning a home made more sense but that's a lifestyle choice. Owning a home can be a ball and chain, or it can provide a sense of security and stability. These are dependent on the person/family. At this time in my life renting a condo would be fine.

There is far more to how and where a person lives than the display on a calculator.

 

@AJT123 What do you think about this?

 

WTH is wrong with this pacifica i saw? lol

 

Disabled conversion

 

Yep, wheelchair-accessible van, looks to be a VantageAbility conversion. This is what it looks like on the other side:



They cost almost $100k new.