The Coronavirus thread

Quote: AZDuffman

The opposite. Less risky to rent. Long term benefits differ much, but when you rent you can bug out fast, when you own you are committing.

I disagree. If you get a thirty-year (or whatever) fixed rate mortgage, then you know what your housing payment is going to be for whatever amount of time. If you rent, then you are subject to fluctuations in the rental market.

For me, I hate home ownership and will never do it again---but I do consider it less risky from the perspective of known costs.

Quote: AZDuffman

Look at who was more afraid of the china virus. Look at who buys Volvos. Look at how liberals raise their kids vs conservatives, which are more likely to be "free range" kids and who is so much more about making sure they wear helmets, etc. Who is more likely to want to ban "dangerous" things and want warning labels? Who prefers to live in the HOA?

This and more is where I am getting it.

Yeah, Liberals are less likely to indoctrinate their kids into a stupid religion. How terrible.

Quote: Mission146

I disagree. If you get a thirty-year (or whatever) fixed rate mortgage, then you know what your housing payment is going to be for whatever amount of time. If you rent, then you are subject to fluctuations in the rental market.

For me, I hate home ownership and will never do it again---but I do consider it less risky from the perspective of known costs.

I don't believe Trump ever went broke renting to people, only running other kinds of business.

Quote:

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Quote: Mission146

I disagree. If you get a thirty-year (or whatever) fixed rate mortgage, then you know what your housing payment is going to be for whatever amount of time. If you rent, then you are subject to fluctuations in the rental market.

For me, I hate home ownership and will never do it again---but I do consider it less risky from the perspective of known costs.

But you are locked into that place until you can sell, assuming you can. Take a place like Wheeling. Many is the young manager from a national company sent there to manage the local location. If they buy they are far more tied down. Say they get fired, quit, or the business simply closes. Wheeling is not a robust market, so they have a hard time selling. If they rent they can just wait out the lease, pay to break it, or pull a Baltimore Colts and just bug out hoping the landlord does not make an issue out of it.

I choose to own as I am not likely to take a job that moves me about again. I may travel, but I am locked in on my home base for various reasons.

Quote: AZDuffman

But you are locked into that place until you can sell, assuming you can. Take a place like Wheeling. Many is the young manager from a national company sent there to manage the local location. If they buy they are far more tied down. Say they get fired, quit, or the business simply closes. Wheeling is not a robust market, so they have a hard time selling. If they rent they can just wait out the lease, pay to break it, or pull a Baltimore Colts and just bug out hoping the landlord does not make an issue out of it.

I choose to own as I am not likely to take a job that moves me about again. I may travel, but I am locked in on my home base for various reasons.

Yeah, and if you lived there as a renter before the gas boom your monthly rent on a two-bedroom (assuming not public housing or Section 8) went from about $550-$700 to $1200-$1400 per month. They're back down now, though, because that has slowed down and the ethane cracker plant isn't happening. They're still not down to where they were.

Anyway, you have identified a specific situation in which buying may not be the best option. Do you want to talk in generalities or not? I thought I was to assume that you speak in general statements.

In this era of cheap money it is foolish for most folks NOT to buy a home, assuming they can afford the down payment and the housing market is not moribund where they'll live.

Stock and real estate ownership are two key things that have kept the whites economically well ahead of the blacks.

Maybe instead of "forty acres and a mule" as was the post Civil War incentive for blacks (early reparations) , it should be "forty shares of Amazon and we'll make your down payment."

Quote: Mission146

Yeah, and if you lived there as a renter before the gas boom your monthly rent on a two-bedroom (assuming not public housing or Section 8) went from about $550-$700 to $1200-$1400 per month. They're back down now, though, because that has slowed down and the ethane cracker plant isn't happening. They're still not down to where they were.

Anyway, you have identified a specific situation in which buying may not be the best option. Do you want to talk in generalities or not? I thought I was to assume that you speak in general statements.

Wheeling is just one place, there are many cities where this kind of thing applies. Yes, risk of rent going up. But no down payment and if something breaks it is not on you. Generally I am a buy advocate but it is higher risk.

Sad thing about the cracker plant. We need the jobs.

Quote: AZDuffman

Wheeling is just one place, there are many cities where this kind of thing applies. Yes, risk of rent going up. But no down payment and if something breaks it is not on you. Generally I am a buy advocate but it is higher risk.

Sad thing about the cracker plant. We need the jobs.

Wheeling was YOUR example!!!

I agree that renters don’t have to cover (some) broken items, but that’s why I specified that homeowners with fixed rate loans have fixed known costs over a particular period of time. Renters cannot predict what rent will be every year, for instance, for thirty years.

As far as the down payment argument goes, deposits are essentially a down payment on being able to rent. The difference is, in theory, you can get your deposit back.

Quote: Mission146

Wheeling was YOUR example!!!

Yes. Replace "Wheeling" with any of the following and it still holds: Akron, Altoona, Scranton, Binghamton, Fort Wayne, lots of others.

Quote:

I agree that renters don’t have to cover (some) broken items, but that’s why I specified that homeowners with fixed rate loans have fixed known costs over a particular period of time. Renters cannot predict what rent will be every year, for instance, for thirty years.

As far as the down payment argument goes, deposits are essentially a down payment on being able to rent. The difference is, in theory, you can get your deposit back.

The other big difference is a deposit is about $1500 but a down payment is $30000 or more.

Quote: AZDuffman

Yes. Replace "Wheeling" with any of the following and it still holds: Akron, Altoona, Scranton, Binghamton, Fort Wayne, lots of others.



The other big difference is a deposit is about $1500 but a down payment is $30000 or more.

Okay, buying is riskier if you are in a place that you should have every reason to believe is highly likely to be temporary AND you are not necessarily of the income level that would enable you to make mortgage payments, move somewhere else (and have a housing payment of one kind or another) and be able to wait on the first place to sell at a profit. I agree. I wouldn’t say that applies to the majority of people who would ever be considering buying in the first place.

Yeah, maybe, I don’t know. I’ve bought one house, lifetime, and my down payment was $0.