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200 sats \ 4 replies \ @kepford 7 Aug \ on: Buy or rent? Which do you think is the best decision right now? AskSN
These guys are selling. They know nothing about you or your individual situation or the area and region you may be in.
You aren't wrong. There is no right or wrong here.
Here's my generic advice.
Renting is a great option if you can't afford a house. What I mean? Well, maybe you could afford a house payment but could you afford to replace your water heater if it went out? Could you afford an even bigger thing like your HVAC? Or would you be forced into high interest rate credit card debt to fix it. When you buy a home you are responsible for all the work. A home is not an investment. It costs money to live in it beyond your monthly mortgage payment.
Are you gonna live in the area for less than 5 years? Maybe renting is a solid option? If you aren't gonna live somewhere for 2 years renting becomes even better.
If I were not a home owner today and I wanted to start a family I'd need to have a solid emergency fund of at least 3-6 months of expenses before I'd even consider it. If I didn't have that I'd be living very tight to get that reserve stockpiled.
People mostly focus on interest payments and they do matter. I wouldn't be waiting on that to change. You can always refi once rates come down. They will come down but I don't see them coming down to the 2% range anytime soon. That was an oddity historically. Rates are not really that bad historically speaking. Just in recent memory they look bad.
I don't view my home as an investment. Its my home. It has value. It has utility. It is better than fiat for storing value but not better than bitcoin or even gold. It is far to risky and requires tax payments to even hold it.
I know realtors and I can tell you that your question is very common. They tell people that before they even consider buying they should talk to a loan officer and see what their options are. It could be that you can't afford a home now and you just don't know it. You may not realize how good renting can be. Patience is your friend. Don't buy into either extreme for buying or renting. Figure out your finances and talk to people that can learn and teach you about your options.
Thank you very much, my friend... very good advice... I'm going to keep it in mind... really, for now we can't buy a house, but we're working towards that... little by little, I think that first piece of advice about whether having a house could fix any problem that might occur is a good starting point.
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For me owning my home is more about autonomy and agency. I have reduced the number of people that can restrict what I might want to do. I don't have to ask permission so much. Now, that isn't as important to others maybe but it is to me. Also one reason I don't live in a city. One less government body restricting me. There are always trade-offs. There are no solutions. Just trade-offs.
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At home, we're looking to achieve more autonomy. For now, we live in an apartment almost in the center of the city. Going out of the city a bit right now wouldn't be the best idea... but we're on the way there.