If you had $10,000 laying around...

[BruceH]

I did not call home ownership an investment. My mortgage, taxes and insurance on my 2300 sq ft house equals the cost of a nice, not luxiourous, 2-3 bedroom apartment. I make my payments and by the time I retire, my house will have value, and then I will only be paying taxes, insurance and up keep for a whole lot less than a 1 bedroom apartment. As I get older, I can sell the house and use the proceeds to live out my final years where I want, wether it is a retirement community or what ever. My point was, home ownership is a good deal IF you don't overspend on a large, asset eating abode. If your income only allows buying a one bedroom condo, then that is what you can afford, and I still say, that is a better way to go than renting your entire life. Like I said, my home costs me monthly what a 2 bedroom apartment would cost but I have much more, including a two car garage to park my 986 in

[tortoise944]

I had this same dilemma a few months ago.

Background:
My wife and I both budget well, are saving for retirements, kids college, have a rainy day fund >6 months.

The company I work for ended up giving out much bigger bonuses this year, so we decided that we should replace the 986 we sold 3+ years ago.

Turns out, with ultra low interest rates and great credit, many banks are almost giving money away (~1% interest on new car loan), so we ended up getting a new 981 S.

Summary: If you have a budget with savings already, extra money is good for fun things.

[Porsche Chick]

Oh, lord.

I belong to a couple of real estate forums and the "rent versus buy" threads go on forever.

Pro-renters tend to use the "you could have made more in stocks" idea. Meanwhile, as we said at the top of this thread, most average people do NOT make more in stocks. They buy too high, sell too low, and their average return is very puny.

Pro-buyers tend to stick with the "in time, buying will be cheaper than renting". But I recently checked the value of the first house we bought 20+ years ago for $67K, and it's now worth $100K. If we had been paying a mortgage (at those rates) all this time, we would be into it for about $120K. Plus repairs.

So. . .

The sucker part of home ownership is the total of 30 years of mortgage costs (usually 2.5-3 times the original purchase price), holding on when the "fashion" of a particular house style or neighborhood fades, and choosing properties with high upkeep.

The sucker part of renting is there is no hope of any type of return, your neighbors are transient, and rental rates tend to only go up.

Point is, there are tradeoffs with both.

[TeamOxford]

Our house is paid for.

Don't know if it's an investment or not, but I can tell you that it feels wonderful not to have to write out a mortgage check each month.

We paid ours off early. In the final analysis, we paid 1.5 times the purchase price of the house. It is now worth that much.

Like I said, it feels DAMN good.

Gotta call my buddy Warren now..............

TO

[Perfectlap]

Originally Posted by Porsche Chick

Oh, lord.

I belong to a couple of real estate forums and the "rent versus buy" threads go on forever.

Pro-renters tend to use the "you could have made more in stocks" idea. Meanwhile, as we said at the top of this thread, most average people do NOT make more in stocks. They buy too high, sell too low, and their average return is very puny.

Pro-buyers tend to stick with the "in time, buying will be cheaper than renting". But I recently checked the value of the first house we bought 20+ years ago for $67K, and it's now worth $100K. If we had been paying a mortgage (at those rates) all this time, we would be into it for about $120K. Plus repairs.

So. . .

The sucker part of home ownership is the total of 30 years of mortgage costs (usually 2.5-3 times the original purchase price), holding on when the "fashion" of a particular house style or neighborhood fades, and choosing properties with high upkeep.

The sucker part of renting is there is no hope of any type of return, your neighbors are transient, and rental rates tend to only go up.

Point is, there are tradeoffs with both.

I agree a poorly informed investor and the stock market are a disastrous mix.

Poorly informed investors are the life blood of the real estate industry and banks.

The average worker is first fleeced by the bank holding their mortgage and the actively-managed mutual fund industry picks off what's left. Both fleecings can be avoided, the latter easily, the former a bit trickier but doable.