I was happy to sell my house and trade the loss of equity (and the last 10 years has been outrageously exceptional to the usual appreciation of property) for the freedom that living in an apartment gave me. Leaving for a month? Ask your neighbour to water the plants and walk away. 10-20 hours of maintenance and upkeep each week? Now it's 0. Constant accumulation of tools, devices, and products? Not needed.

I seem to be an exception, but I have no need to define who I am by my housing, nor do I need the security of owning my own house. I have also lived on three continents, so I appreciate the ability to pull up stakes and move with very little fuss.

> 10-20 hours of maintenance and upkeep each week?

What in the world? This doesn't even come remotely close to passing the sniff test. Is your idea of homeownership like, constant remodeling or something?

I do zero hours of maintenance/upkeep per week, just like you with your rental.

Is your landlord now doing 10-20 hours of maintenance/upkeep per week for every apartment? Of course the answer is no.

10h is maybe an exaggeration, but I sincerely hope that you're checking your plumbing and all your drainage and maintaining your lawn.

In Sweden, homeownership vs apartments is quite a large difference.

I've seen houses which just grow shrubs over the whole lawn (sidesteps lawn maintenance, I suppose you may have to trim shrubs but its not that bad, really, compared to grass which grows almost overnight).

The other side of keeping up with maintenance - if you don't have time nor want to, hire away. It will eat a significant chunk of change to hire all the professionals your landlord was hiring, the difference being you are hiring yourself versus being dependent on the landlord.

For the DIYer, tools acquisition is definitely a PITA. Hardware stores have a decent selection mostly of what you need, but it would be nice if there were preset of tool maintenance you could order, maybe even save you money over long term buying it all piecemeal.

I'd imagine the real time suck would be for planning/research for it all, if you are used to spending your time coding, playing games, or otherwise amusing yourself, yes for the first couple years you will not have any time for these things as you are acquiring your skillset(s).

But that could be said for going back to school, etc. I think it's pretty valuable to be able to maintain your own dwelling apparatus, personally. It means you'll never be without reasonable shelter, so long as you have some access to raw materials, tools.

I don't check my plumbing or drainage. And a lawn is a difference between a house and an apartment, you're right about that, for me it's about 2 hours a month (which I pay someone else to do) rather than uh, 40-80. However I believed we were discussing ownership vs not ownership, rather than apartment vs house.

Checking your plumbing and drainage? What do you mean? What would you do weekly that involves this?

Lawn maintenance is maybe one or two hours a week at most, and that is mainly because we like to keep it pretty tidy. Then again, we would have needed to do similar maintenance (in the UK) for a rental if we wanted to keep the same standard for the garden.

If I was living by myself or just with my wife I would stick with an apartment. The kids spend so much time in the backyard, and it is hard to find an affordable apartment that has enough space for all of us to live, let alone also WFH that my wife and I are both doing. Plus, how do you build projects without a garage and outside area to work on things?

You didn't do enough research into your house purchase, or you weren't able to afford a well built house.

Houses like anything else have lifetimes, You don't get to be a 200 year old house without having major maintenance done at least a couple times. Buying a poorly maintained, or constructed, old house is a nightmare, if it's bad enough you've discovered why some houses are condemned.

Modern construction often has a longer lifespan and more readily accessible materials, older houses are a mixed bag - some gems that may last hundreds (thousands?) of years, lots of houses that need major repair. Some in the middle too...

While this can certainly be the case for some houses, it really depends on the place and its condition when purchased.

Welcome to HN!

Home ownership is as much a comfort as it is a fantasy. There are true perks, eg, you're mostly in control of the regular costs (rent vs mortgage) but it also has downsides, like... basically any hazard and everything location-related.

PS: I feel weirdly kinda honored that you created your account and replied to my comment. Anyway, I'm just being me ;)

That very much depends on where you live. I know what you mean and I partially agree with it but it's not universally true.