Reconsidering the wisdom of home ownership

[Frank Lee]

In addition to being a sitting duck for all manner of money extracting ****heads, whenever something fouls up/wears out, you have to fix it and pay for it instead of calling the landlord and having him/her do it.

And then there is mobility. Sometimes markets are not favorable for selling, but one would like to go. Sometimes developers are busy ****ing up your neighborhood making it a tougher sell too. It's just another complication.

[gone-ot]

...not to mention "Gestapo-like" Home Owners Associations!

...everybody ELSE telling you what you can & can't do with your own property!

[Thymeclock]

Originally Posted by Varn

Yes a "safe room" is a secure room that one keeps valuables and or some essential stuff. Usually made from reinforced concrete.

A safe room might work for all disasters.

Probably very practical if you live in 'tornado alley'.

We don't get tornadoes in my locale. I guess they don't have tornadoes in Scotland either - do they?

[Thymeclock]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

...not to mention "Gestapo-like" Home Owners Associations!

...everybody ELSE telling you what you can & can't do with your own property!

Yeah, but you probably knew that you'd be subject to their rule before you moved in. So what did you expect?

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

...whenever something fouls up/wears out, you have to fix it and pay for it instead of calling the landlord and having him/her do it.

On the other hand, when something like that happens, you CAN fix it, instead of having your calls ignored by the landlord.

[gone-ot]

Originally Posted by Thymeclock

Yeah, but you probably knew that you'd be subject to their rule before you moved in. So what did you expect?

...not always...they "vote-IN" new rules all the time after you own the home that seem to benefit only the "few" on the committee.

[Thymeclock]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

...not always...they "vote-IN" new rules all the time after you own the home that seem to benefit only the "few" on the committee.

Yeah, but by now most people know that sooner or later communities that have these committees tend to end up this way.

[sid]

I feel I have definitely benefited from owning my own home. But I bought a reasonably sized house (1100 square feet), paid it off in less than six years, and have been living in it for over 30 years. I also am able and do most of my own maintenance and upkeep. If you are moving every five years and/or have to hire someone to do every little upkeep thing for you, the economics can quickly go against you.

[gone-ot]

...I believe the original question was taxe$ vs. benefit$, with benefits seeming to favor the "family" home more than the single home-owner.

...Wonder which is the bigger number? The 30 years of property taxe$ or 30 years of declining tax break$ (which might not be around any longer)?

...I'm guessing: the property taxes, not as big in the beginning, but always there and almost always going UP, not down, in numbers.

[darcane]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

...I believe the original question was taxe$ vs. benefit$, with benefits seeming to favor the "family" home more than the single home-owner.

...Wonder which is the bigger number? The 30 years of property taxe$ or 30 years of declining tax break$ (which might not be around any longer)?

...I'm guessing: the property taxes, not as big in the beginning, but always there and almost always going UP, not down, in numbers.

I'm sure the property taxes is the bigger number by the end of 30 years.

One interesting thing though... this last year my assessed value actually dropped (previous two years it still went up, even though market value was going down) and my property taxes went down just a little!

Not enough to matter though, and they keep trying to pass things to increase property taxes, so I'm sure it will go back up soon.