i move from city each year, impossible not to rent

There is more houses for sale then buyers. And its impossible to get a mortgage. Its never been this bad. You must be +20% down with 750 credit.

Say property your buying is 400k. Your need 80k down + taxes and closing fees. Its plus 90k. 7 years you go to sell property you might have to take less. And all the money you put into it. then everything in house must be up to date to sell. you have to fiz up a place to sell it. here is the part that makes you vomit. Take that 90 and buy a mutual fund and in those 7 years it might be worth 300k.

ANSWER......RENT......unless your a family staying put for 15-20 years

The United Nations plans to nationalize ALL private property, particularly privately owned land. They are incredibly powerful and will eventually get their way even if it takes 30 or 40 years

Fourth bullet point down http://www.un-freezone.org/

You can Google too, there's plenty of info out there on this and on why they plan to do it

I own my own property, and I think renting is throwing money away -- but at least a renter isn't tied down to anything.

I own a place, but I rent a different place to live in. It allows me to MOVE when I want with no BS. I give 30 days and I'm out. This papa is a rolling stone. FREEDOM.

$owninghome = "renting from the government";

I don't know I'm torn
we're upside down on the condo
yet renting seems like throwing money away

:thumbsup :thumbsup

Owning property isn't the problem, it's people's attitudes towards property and living.

I live in a mobile trailor and park in the mans street everynight,fuck em

Exactly!

Considering there's a lot of business savvy folks here, I'm surprised it took to reply #56 before someone mentioned the government really owns everyone's home...

While it's true that in some places property taxes are still nominal, in many others, such as southeastern Pennsylvania where I live, property taxes are quite steep ($5,000-$7,000 year is common on modest $150K-$200K homes), and continue to rapidly increase, especially the school district portion.

Also, there are other government mandated fees (as in not paying can result in loss of property) that can be far larger than one would imagine, in particular, water and sewer.

In Reading, PA there are many people living in small row homes paying $150+ per month for water/sewer, though that's a bargain compared to what some families in Birdsboro, PA who pay upwards of $500 per month!

And then are various new government mandates and fees coming down the pike, including, in Pennsylvania, a new law requiring municipalities to install expensive filters on all storm drainage basins, plus additional labor to inspect and change filters on a regular basis - many small municipalities in PA will be facing bills nearly as large as their entire annual budgets to comply - currently the law is on hold, but likely for not long. Much of those costs will passed on to home owners in the form of higher property taxes and/or water/sewer rates.

Another proposed law making its way through, such as Reading, PA, would require all property owners, including residential, to pay a "rain runoff" tax based on the square footage of property covered with structures, parking lots, etc.

Homeowners are easy tax targets, since many have bought the "American Dream" nonsense while many others realize it's a crock, but are "trapped" and have little choice other than to raid their retirement, take out loans, etc to "save" their home, which, to reiterate, is a misnomer, since the government really owns it.

Ron

Correct, but try to convince Robert Kiyosaki.

He is a Hawaian idiot who says that buying properties is a bad business and he prefers to rent and invest that money in stocks with guys like MADDOFF. Funny.

Also, people who rent here in my building suck... they don't take care of things like we, owners do, they just don't care about the apartment and building in general. They think that by paying the rent, they can destroy the apartment. A bunch of motherfuckers, seriously.

.

BTW, I can't believe how cheap PROPERTIES in USA are right now...

A nice 3 room in MIAMI, near the BEACH is cheaper than a 3 room in a marginal Ugly zone of a 3rd World country... Incredible.

.

Owners want to keep the neighborhood nice, long term outlook on life.

Renters could care less and will just move on.

Homeowners look out for each others property.

Renters mind their own business.

If there is car broken into on the block, it must be those scumbag renters....

My area is full of professional people that rent. Not everyone can buy even with the prices dropping.
http://realestate.yahoo.com/California/Hermosa_Beach

Yes renters are the scum of the earth. My servants are probably renters and I often flog them when they don't wear their white gloves. How many times do I have to keep reminding them. Bah. Maybe I won't pay them this month. Let them eat cake..

I knew I'd rent for about another 5 to 6 years. I set it up that way because I knew I'd be moving around. I also knew I'd want the freedom to move around. I will eventually want to sit in one spot for more than 5 years, but not right now. Besides, I haven't seen enough spots yet to know what spot I want to sit in.

Had I known the market was going to blossom like it did I would have bought back in 2004 and sold in 2007 for double the price. But I made a lot more in those years then I would have made on the house anyway so I don't feel like whoa is me about it.

Nice tax advantages to owning!

I feel sorry for you if you judge people/your friends/relatives based on if they rent or own. I don't give a fuck what people in my environment do, I care if they are good ppl or not. Financial situation of a family - in most cases - has nothing to do with they are nice/enlightened parents or not.

Here rent is fucking cheap compared to property prices. Or better said property prices still didn't hit the bottom so we rather rent and look down on stupid property owners for being as dumb as renting and pulling in like 3%, rather than selling with a discount and banking in.

Not everything is dirt cheap as in the states.

Oh no...!

Here we always had 30%+ down, that's why we don't have the foreclosure BS going on in the states. Way less toxic loans. You actually need a bit more to insiure the loan here rather than just a property alone, but hey, who told you to go buy a 400k property if you can't find insurance for that other 30%. Think banks are stupid and should just lend like there's no tomorrow? We all saw how that worked fine.

And 90k turning into 300k in 7 years while you are incapable of coughing up 90k? Wow... Turbo loan wishes, turbo profit wishes... fucking nice. Let the financial gods have mercy on you.

You already anticipate you may get back less in 7 years and you whine why banks won't take the whole property as a single insurance.

Alrighty then...

That would depend on your lifestyle. If you are staying put in that place for many years to come, maybe renting is a bad idea.

I know quite a few property owners who purchased at the price peak who now wish they were renters for the past few years

As far as people with these piece of shit renters. Maybe you got to screen them and not pick the first warm body who shows up? I always respected where I lived because it was my home at the moment. The lady two doors down from me and has been renting that condo for 18 yrs. The guy across street rents his out to a nice couple that have been there for ten yrs.

the whole "renter's are less than human" crap is just a bad stereotype with very little basis in reality, as any responsible renting adult will attest to.

i can understand most of the rest, but "couples"? Aren't you eliminating a massive group of perfectly reasonable potentials?

When I rented out my house, the first renters were scum of the earth, they broke their lease and did over 10k in damage to the house, thank god for good insurance. The present renters are awesome, been there for a couple years, always pay ontime.

hmmm, i guess....
every lease i ever signed with an "other" held both of us responsible for the full rent, regardless if one of us left. But, i suppose that only good if it's enforceable.... in (generally speaking, not directed at you) low rent studios I imagine that might be hard to track them down in the event of lease breakage.

foreclosures situation in USA happened cause banks were giving out stupid loans. . You have 20% to put down and most likely your getting the mortgage as long as you have good credit.

I don't believe home prices will rise for 5 to 10 years. Historically the stockmarket goes up while real estate tanks. There have been similar periods like the late 80's till late 90's. If you bought real estate and sold it in that period most likely you lost money. On other hand stockmarket skyrocketed. If you were heavily invested then you did very very well.

I believe where in that same type of period. And wait till Obama loses the next election. And if the stockmarket thinks Obama will lose the next election alot of people will start investing in the us markets again.

im surprised people on this board would think this. in a business where its hard to prove your actual income because everyone wants to pay the least amount of taxes possible, it can be hard to get a mortgage unless you have a lot of money saved up. i've rented for over 10 years now. At first it was mostly because I knew if i bought, i wouldn't be able to get out of town as easily and i didn't want to get stuck there. now banks are up everyone's ass and its way harder to get a mortgage then it was a few years ago.

i've owned 2 homes, and i'm currently renting again....

renting is much less headache, all around.

If you have a family and you need schools for your kids then you buy. But it is a losing proposition. Take 30 years mort and pay least possible. Don't pay 1 cent extra to pay off loan.

I bought house in 1990 for 300k. I put 100k into. I sold house in 1998 for 330k. WERE IN SAME PERIOD NOW.

If you bought mutual fund in 1990 and sold it in 1998. Here is fidelity magellan. Its know as 1 of the best funds.

In 1990 FMAGX was $13. In 1998 $53. Let me do some math for you. I put 20% down on that house so lets use figure of 70k.

My $70,000 I put down on House I could have bought magellan and in 1998 it would have been worth $286,000

Real estate market is in same down turn. So Im saying history says DONT BUY INVEST NOW.

farmers insurance paid for everything, I was even able to upgrade a few things because I did a lot of the work myself. Everything in the house has been replaced in the last couple years, so I don't have to worry about it. When the current renters move out, I may just use the house for vacations, it's 2 1/2 miles from Lake Shasta which has 365 miles of shoreline. Park a boat there and have parties on the lake

clever....

You people are a strange lot, always "moving". Whats up with that? None of you have a family, children anything to keep you rooted and not in la-la land?
LOL and some asswipe posted something about a house being a "toy"? LOL what a bunch of kooks.

I rent the top floor of a duplex ( 1600 sq feet, front balcony, back 200 sq terrace ) for a low rent.

I own a duplex 2 streets away, and I rent out both units ... To move in one of my unit would implicate an extra 600.00/month for no more confort ...

rent/buy depends on a lot of variables ...

I'd say in these times, renters are looking pretty smart. I rent and I am not in foreclosure nor do I own a home worth less than my mortgage. What exactly is it about home ownership that makes someone superior?

life is too short to spend 40 years in one structure, rotting.
1950 is over.

my record is 16 moves in one year. (end of 1985 - early 1987)

i've lived in 8 states and 5 countries, and have been to every state in the U.S. except Alaska (and every province in Canada) hundreds of times.

i've moved more times than i can remember. there are some addresses i will simply never recall.
the longest amount of time i've ever spent in one place is 3 years.

What a retarded thread (although Jesus H. Christ & Amp's comments are interesting, and a few others). But still, what a retarded thread.

I live in New York City. NEW YORK FUCKING CITY MAN!! A (decent) 1 BR in a (decent) neighborhood is $3000+. LOL But to BUY that same 1 BR? $750,000+. Over a mil for a 2 BR.

There are only (IMHO) TWO reasons to own a house (and I actually do own one, too, in NJ, for my family):

1. You want "stability" to raise a family/set down "roots" in a community (school, activities, etc)

2. You want to make money through time/equity.

If you don't have either of those things going on then rent, and if you work on the Internet (so you can live anywhere) then live where the rents are cheap. (I live in Manhattan but in a "turning neighborhood" where the rent is only - only - $1200 a month, and I feel lucky. LOL)

I just have a good rental agency that charges 8% and takes the headache out of it. The renters I had problems with, I handled myself, never doing that again

Rental houses around here are shit. So, if you want to live in a nice house, there's no other way than to build one yourself, or renovate an older one.

I'm pro buying. Housing prices did not fall around here the last few years, so all is still good.

Renting is for students, or elderly around here.

NYC is a different animal all together. When I lived there my 1 bedroom was $2500 a month. In the 2 years we lived in the city, I could have use all that money and paid in full for a house where I live now. Yes...there are huge city houses where I live that can be had for under $60k.

We've had the house we're in for 7 years (in Rochester, NY)and are shooting to have it paid off in less than 3 years. 2800 sq ft of living space. And about 2000 between the basement and attic. 2 kitchens. 3 bathrooms. 5 bedrooms. List price 7 years ago was probably about what someone would pay for a new Range Rover or M5.

My rental properties have mortgage payments of just over $200 and both bring in $1000 - 1200 a month in rent. Properties are cheap as shit here.

This part probably isn't legal.
http://www.discriminationiswrong.com/families.html

You got it goin' up there, my fellow New Yorker!! If I didn't have family responsibilities here I'd be out of NYC and living upstate. Tons of gorgeous property, a couple hours from the city (more the further up ya go), can probably grow your own weed there, too. LOL

Seriously, ppl who work on the Internet should live cheap cause they can. Anywhere there's a WiFi or cable connection, there ya go. Sigh. Paying $3000 for a 1 BR apartment should be illegal.

Mortgage is actually Latin for "Until death do we owe"

I think I'd rather rent, more flexibility! Nobody lives forever.

Flexibility is the key. Like you said, nobody lives forever, and I would add to that, jobs come & go, friends come & go, family structures change, lifestyles change, etc... as well. Much easier to make those transitions as a renter.

in bigger cities and for people on the move it is definitely better to rent. But if you have a family or you live in smaller city owning a house is preferred. In those places is true that people look "strange" at you if you dont have a house..especially older people..

i own a handful of houses, but i dont live in any of them, and i rent the place i'm in.
the market where I live and the market where I own the houses are completely different.
doesn't make sense to own in LA, opportunity cost is too high, even with my rent being $3k/month

If you bought 10 years ago and sold 2 years ago and are now renting you are really smart! :)