Show HN: Should I Get a House? a better rent vs. buy calculator

Re:Show HN: Should I Get a House? a better rent vs. buy calc... by BeetleB on Monday July 19, 2021 @05:39PM (#27887554)

> I've heard a rule of thumb that home maintenance costs are 1% of the home's value per year

It's a very poor rule of thumb. Contrary to the other comment, these costs don't increase linearly with value of the house. Sure, if I live in an expensive area, it may go up 30%, but not much more. Looking at how much my house has appreciated, I can assure you I pay not much more in maintenance than when I bought it.

The 1% rule came about when the median house price was under $200K.

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Re:Show HN: Should I Get a House? a better rent vs. buy calc... by FireBeyond on Tuesday July 20, 2021 @06:44PM (#27900242)

There's a very interesting subset of people on Reddit's Personal Finance forum who seem to think that buying was the right move (kinda, see below) for them, but that renters "don't know how good they have it".

Watch any one of the threads on "should I buy/can I afford/pros/cons", and you'll see a vocal subset who seem hellbent on convincing people that owning a house is nothing more than opening your wallet/checkbook/credit card every other weekend for the "next four digit maintenance issue".

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Re:Show HN: Should I Get a House? a better rent vs. buy calc... by madcaptenor on Wednesday July 21, 2021 @11:48AM (#27907826)

I can sympathize with that. Buying a house was the right move for me but my wallet screams sometimes.

(I feel the same way about having kids.)

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Re:Show HN: Should I Get a House? a better rent vs. buy calc... by ghaff on Monday July 19, 2021 @06:15PM (#27887914)

Furthermore, if you live in an early 1800s farmhouse like I do (which was very much a fixer-upper when I moved in and still sort of is), that's a very different situation from a modern in-city condo or even a new development.

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