I own a home. It’s still very expensive to own a home. Property taxes, homeowners insurance, new roof, new gutters, new paint job, resurface driveway, new appliances, interior painting, new carpeting, termite policy, bug policy, HOA fees, outside landscaping and utilities. I’m sure it might be cheaper, but not by much.
Depends on the home.
We live in a very inexpensive home.
Paid it off decades ago.
Never traded up.
No regrets.
Am renting on Oahu... Gives options...
Agree. Maintenance sucks off the money.
People don't factor that in when they compare owning vs renting. Two of my sons recently bought their first home and the biggest shock for them is not having a landlord to take care of things. They have gotten very familiar with the local hardware stores and handymen!
“I own a home. It’s still very expensive to own a home. Property taxes, homeowners insurance, new roof, new gutters, new paint job, resurface driveway, new appliances, interior painting, new carpeting, termite policy, bug policy, HOA fees, outside landscaping and utilities. I’m sure it might be cheaper, but not by much.”
Mrs. BBB333 and I started in a 14 x 70 mobile home for $8,300 - no one would rent to us with two cats (very tight rental market in this town in the 90’s (still is).
We purchased a lot and built 3 1/2 years later. Sold the mobile home for $12,500...when we closed on our home we had 25% equity so no PMI fees.
Sure we have upkeep, HOA (removes snow from our roads and currently we are paving our roads so the annual fee is now $1,750 which will go back down to $550 per year next year) taxes and insurance.
Our home value has increased from roughly $180,000 to $1,250,000 over the years.
Beats renting by a mile.
All those costs are, of course, baked into the rent. Every building deteriorates and needs maintenance whether you rent or buy.
Right now we have a large 15 year old pergola made Douglas Fir that is rotting away, the house needs painting, we need new gutters. Ugh. Last winter we lost a lot of plants (as did everybody in North Idaho) so there was a lot of time and expense fixing the landscaping.
The people who sold us the house preferred to play golf all the time and didn’t do a lot of maintenance. I can’t stand things that are falling apart or at the end of their lives, so I’m always fixing, improving, updating, etc.
Maybe the worst part of owning a home is you are a slave to it. It’s not only an endless money pit, but it’s the biggest time suck imaginable. Good thing I never got into golf!