Re:Housing Can’t Be Both Affordable and a Good Investment (2...
by dillonmckay on Thursday May 02, 2019 @07:06AM
(#19806603)
Regarding #2, there are quite a few instances of eminent domain, where the government forces the sale of the home, and this is not limited to government infrastructure projects.
We have examples of folks losing their homes to build gas pipelines and shopping malls.
Re:Housing Can’t Be Both Affordable and a Good Investment (2...
by dragonwriter on Thursday May 02, 2019 @11:49PM
(#19815361)
> Regarding #2, there are quite a few instances of eminent domain, where the government forces the sale of the home, and this is not limited to government infrastructure projects.
As renters are also fully exposed to those, the existence of them does not alter the degree of the stability advantage for home ownership over renting.
The first is 5% interest. Mortgages can be significantly less interest - mine is 1.08% right now (fixed for 2 years, but those are the most important 2 years for paying down).
The second is that you'd pay the mortgage off over 30 years. It's entirely possible to pay off much quicker - perhaps 15 to 20 years - in which case the total interest paid drops significantly.
2. The article completely misses the other huge value of buying a home - risk mitigation. You can't be evicted suddenly for reasons out of your control, you're not subject to market whims in rent (there's an upside to this, but generally rents are sticky - you need to move house to get a better deal even in a falling market), you have no unexpected moving costs, your kids can stay in the same school. Looking at it purely from a monetary point of view completely misses the point.
Ultimately the benefits of stability are worth a lot, especially as you get older.