sirgrim said: If you lose 40% of your "investment" when you resell a house, it's still 100% more than you get back from renting.

Umm..I don't percentages are what they think they are.

Let's see... Using your formula, let's say I buy a home for 100k, and "lose 40%" like you say. I'm left with 60k... which you say is "100% more than you get back from renting". So, I would get back 30k from renting?

Please tell me you are in the realty business..

jjorsett: Regardless of the current situation, renting is soon going to be a bad idea compared to owning. When we get the big spike in inflation as a result of the government's policies, you're going to want to own hard assets.

ChibiDebuHage: jjorsett said:
Regardless of the current situation, renting is soon going to be a bad idea compared to owning.... big spike in inflation... want to own hard assets.


NO. And Yes. Look at the early 80's when interest rates were sky-high.. around 20%. The overnight reaction of the real-estate market was for prices to drop up to 50% in some markets.
Why? At higher interest rates, buyers could only afford to borrow a much lower principal than before, and so the serious sellers had to drop their prices if they wanted to sell. AND, many people who had variable rate mortgages or were at a point or renegotiating their mortgages were suddenly facing a monstrous increase in monthly payments, and were forced to sell.

However... these high interest rates didn't last more than several months... But if had lasted several years my guess is that after an initial drop in house prices, eventually wages would catch up with the new higher interest rates and home prices would skyrocket.

So.. be ready to buy right after inflation skyrockets?

Hyperinflation which is what the future holds in store for US citizens is going to be a nightmare .
Sorry but wages ,real estate ,stocks & bonds etc... aren't going to adjust with the incredible interest rates coming !

ChibiDebuHage: Umm..I don't percentages are what they think they are.

You are ware 100% = 1, right? Tell me you are just point out the word play of 'more than' in that phrase and don't actually lack the reading comprehension to figure this out.

Owning real estate is a way to diversify your assets. It's not a substitute for having bank deposits, nor are bank deposits a substitute for real-estate.

Sure, you could own other real-estate, but since you need a home anyway, for many that's the most logical way to go.

You can't simply say that owning a home is always wrong, or that renting is always wrong. The answer simply is, it depends.

Its unlikely I'll ever buy a house given that the sq. foot price in Halifax is (on average) between $170-250 per square foot.

Insane.

xalres: xalres: missmarsha: I just have to vent for a second - I put in an offer yesterday of 135 then upped to 143,5 on a house listed at 149,9 and the seller won't move below 145. It's been on the market for 3 years! WT????

We had a seller pull that crap. He wanted $10k over what we offered and wouldn't budge. Problem was the house barely appraised at what we offered so we just had to walk. On top of that we got the runaround more than once while waiting to hear back from them. It ran the gamut of bullshiat excuses; family emergency, visiting friends, wife got food poisoning, I half expected to hear someone had died. Oh, and the damn house was paid off. This was the original owner. He paid $20k for it and we were offering $370K. The guy was 94, what the fark? why hold out on $10k when you won't even be around that much longer to enjoy it.

BAH! Sorry to vent. Just....ARGH!

/whatever, we're in escrow on a better place anyway.

Ugh, I even previewed and everything.

The house is paid for and he won't be around that much longer, so why should he care if it sells or not?

Real estate talk aside the show the article talks about is great. The homeowner last week was completely clueless and his poor wife had to sit there as this mouth breathing moron insisted his house was worth more. He wouldn't even tell the host how much they got an offer for because he was afraid it was going to fall through (which it did).

I'm usually kind compassionate for these people but I hope this guy loses his shirt for some reason....

sirgrim: ChibiDebuHage: Oh and y'all calculating whether it is better to buy or rent.. don't forget that in addition to all those expenses you lose 5% of the final selling value of the home..no matter how many years later you sell it.. to the Realtor. So the minute you buy a home you are out 5% of its value already, without yet having dropped a dime on the leaky plumbing, crappy roof, old electrical work, peeling paint, stinky carpet, mouldy bathroom tiles, bad landscaping, replacement hot water heater, etc, etc, etc.
Forget 5 years.. depending on the cirucmstances it probably isn't a good idea to buy a home unless you're planning to be there 10 years!

If you lose 40% of your "investment" when you resell a house, it's still 100% more than you get back from renting.

How do you get back all that money spent on interest, property taxes, repair bills, insurance, and utility bills? You'll also never get back the time you spend doing yard work.

It's a different situation if you're married with kids, but I'm single and it's absurd to imply that I would be better off financially to buy a house. I'm still thinking about getting one, but that's because I want to live walking distance from my gf, my declawed cat (wasn't me) needs a fenced in yard to run around in because he's getting fat, and I want a fancier kitchen. Finally, my entire house will be a man cave. I'm willing to pay extra for all that stuff, but I'm not about to try to fool myself into thinking I might retire sooner.