Most Germans don’t buy their homes, they rent

Re:Most Germans don’t buy their homes, they rent by tptacek on Tuesday October 25, 2016 @08:58AM (#12787522)

My experience and intuition suggests that the opposite is true, and that you'll generally end up in nicer places and in better neighborhoods if you rent. Looking at current house rental listings in Oak Park, I see several in nicer neighborhoods that are less than my rent; in other words: I believe I pay a premium to to own here.

That was my experience in Ann Arbor as well.

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Re:Most Germans don’t buy their homes, they rent by cmdrfred on Tuesday October 25, 2016 @12:06PM (#12789066)

This isn't the case in most of New Jersey or Pennsylvania. Cost to rent a crappy 2 bedroom apartment (with the people below blowing smoke up into your bedroom) is the same as a 3 bedroom house, property taxes, and insurance. It really is location, location, location as they say.

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Re:Most Germans don’t buy their homes, they rent by tptacek on Tuesday October 25, 2016 @12:16PM (#12789157)

Can we test this? I'm ready to be convinced with evidence! Let's use a specific market, and just look at the listings.

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Re:Most Germans don’t buy their homes, they rent by cmdrfred on Tuesday October 25, 2016 @12:40PM (#12789385)

Well in my home town you can look at Zillow to see home prices (http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/Warrington-PA/56739_rid...) all of these are priced to give around or below $1200 mortgage all told (taxes,fees,insurance even if you went in with a low down payment). Here are the apartments that are available (http://www.apartmentguide.com/apartments/Pennsylvania/Warrin...)

$1200 is really the minimum for a 2 bedroom apartment here. There are a few that are maybe $100 - $200 lower, but I wouldn't want to live there.

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