Renting vs. Owning a Home

I see that houses in the area are taking 2-4 months to sale. That might not be too bad if you were forced to move to follow your company. I've never had to deal with something like that. Anyone gone through it recently? Has it changed your mind about buying vs. renting?

This calculator, http://www.cepr.net/calculators/hb/hcc.html, allows you to measure whether renting is better than buying. From what I could find it seems that you get a better deal renting.

Of course, what happens if everyone wants to rent? I imagine the price would go up plus the pool of landlords might shrink. Maybe more people would buy property to rent rather than live in it themselves, or if the stock market starts to get better they might sell property to plunge into that. That is what happened with the house I now own. My father had lived here since 1970, but never had a comfort" level where he could buy the property. It was a duplex and we lived with good and bad neighbors. The best were the MCO students who quietly studied before graduating. The worst was the recruiting sargeant who fired a .45 out the window in frustration over his wife's *cheating. My brother and I approached the owner about buying the house. He wanted out of the real estate business (and its nuts) and into the stock market. We got our duplex (my brother got his love nest, and my dad got peace and quiet).

Before I got married, I rented because I wanted the flexibility of being able to pick up and move whenever/wherever I wanted.

Now that I'm married with kids, I like the stability of being a homeowner. (In my case, I do have relative security as a homeowner - I own 80% of the equity in my home, even after taking the market decrease into consideration.) We have no intention of moving out of the area - its important to us that our kids grow up near grandparents and extended family, so I will do whatever has to be done to stay here.

I want my kids to have a "childhood home" where they live in one consistent place, like I did when I was growing up. That's why renting stopped appealing to me after I got married and had kids.

(Of course, it helps that we have very little debt of any kind, and I have a relatively stable job. Only way I would leave this area would be if crime started to spread and it wasn't safe to keep my kids in Sylvania anymore. Otherwise we're digging our feet in and riding out the economic crisis.)

Mom2, I own two cheap pieces of property. I live in one, and rent the other. I agree with your position, but if I were in my 20s, and facing what I think is coming I would be looking to rent rather than buy. I seem to remember I bought because: 1. I thought I should (it was a sign of adulthood); and 2. I did not own a car, and was getting older (I was 28 when I bought my house). I had enjoyed running the distance from Heatherdowns and Byrne to the Main Post Office ( about 6.5 miles one way), but I thought it would be better to live only 1.5 miles from the P.O. Eventually, I bought a car (and put on the weight that comes from not exercising).

I wonder if the Federal Government is doing the wrong thing by encouraging home ownership with programs like the G.I. Bill (do they even do that anymore), or FHA loans. Perhaps these loans are encouraging taxpayers to go into risk that they might not if the government did not give its imprimatur to this increasingly risky activity.

This article, http://www.america.gov/st/econ-english/2008/May/20080515152055attocnich0.837826.html, talks about home ownership. I found this interesting: By 1900, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, less than half of Americans owned their homes.

I know some of the Apartments that rent here in rossford are almost a house payment and they aren't even that nice. I own my own business here so we are not going anywhere until all our kids graduate high school.

I do know a few guys that have families that packed up and moved to find more work since construction isn't the best here right now.

Here's a link that looks at some specifics about Toledo, http://www.bestplaces.net/City/Toledo-Ohio.aspx. One bit of information is that Toledo population of renters is 37% of the population.

In my zip code, 43609, almost 10% of the housing is vacant.

One thing I've thought about (if I was a renter) would be whether I would owe any loyalty to the landlord. If I went into work one day, and was told that the company would be moving in two weeks would I tell the landlord, ask for my deposit, and move on, or would I just silently steal down the highway (because the agreement I signed called for me to stay until the lease was up)? I guess that is one reason a landlord might charge more than he needs to (because he might have a vacant apartment when he isn't ready for it).

From a financial perspective, I think one is always better off to rent than to own. When it comes right down to it, a house is a depreciating asset much like a car is. I know somebody is going to say that their house has quadrupled in value in the last 30 years so that must not be true. The person who says that didn�t factor in for inflation and didn�t consider all the money and hard work they put into the house in the last 30 years.

There are other reasons to buy a house, such as the parent who wants a nice yard for their children to play in. That is a good reason to buy a house, just don�t do it because you think it is a good investment.

Tough call, which to me, involves more than just finances but needs vs. wants. From a business model my plan is probably a disaster from a human one, it is wonderful.

It may sound sappy, but in the event I have grandkids someday, I want them to have a sense of home; a place to visit where their parents grew up. All of this comes at a cost which involves sacrifice. This aint no dress rehearsal.

I never thought about my house as an investment. In my neighborhood houses depreciate because of the poor who live there, no matter how nice the home. I moved there on a whim (my mom suggested it because it had just become vacant). When I did not drive I always factored in how I would get to my job. Ideally, I would have liked to get a place about three miles from my work. That is a good jaunt on foot or bike. Also, being within a half mile of a bus line would be a deciding factor.

My home was a place to live, where I could have pets, where I would not have to concern myself with the landlord's whims. My father never owned a home, and did quite well without it.

When we went down to apply for Medicaid for him (if he needed a nursing home) I found out that because I owned the home (and had bought it more than three years before the need arose) we could keep the house. For that reason I am glad that he did not own a home. Luckily, we did not require Medicaid, and he stayed with us until the last five weeks before he died. The costs of nursing homes is a story for another time.

If it were up to me, i would definatly buy vs rent. I recently lived in a townhouse that i was told was very quiet and no pets were allowed (my husband has alergies so this was a requirement for us)AND the fact that my rent was more than a lot of people pay in mortgages. However once we were setlled we discovered the neighbors liked to party all the time and i didnt much care for the one person who had a cat, another a rotweiler, and another a pitbull. Landlord wouldn't do a damn thing about the noise. Another place i rented the landlord didn't even do general maintenence. THe ones i've encountered just want to paid and not bothered at all. So in my opinion, i'd perfer to buy.

tm2, you put your finger on why some people find owning a home more attractive. My parents rented in apartment houses until my father found a little house out on Alexis Road (it is torn down now). We paid $60 a month rent from April 1954 until September 1964, then moved to a bigger house on South Avenue (my mom was due to give birth in October). We loved were we lived on Alexis but we had one bedroom (my father slept on a foldout couch in the living room), and a baby would keep everyone awake. We left a house where we spent most time in the big yard to a house with three bedrooms and a backyard maybe 20 feet deep.

I left Whitmer and went to Libbey, made new friends, and spent a lot of time riding my bike. When I lived on Alexis I could hit a ball in my front yard, and it would not reach Alexis Road. Now it's so built up it looks little different from the Old South End to me. My brother moved over the border into Michigan so he could have the big yard (though his is mostly in the back), good schools, and the feeling of safety that you lose among the "rough" people of the city.

One of the things I used to enjoy as a boy was laying on a lounger out under one of the little evergreen trees we had in our front yard. We had two that defined the "limits" of our property, and they gave me shade while I read on a sunny day. After a while some friends would usually come by with an invite to play ball over at Westwood Elementary School. We'd go there, play a while, break for lunch, and return to the "game" until we got tired, and went to explore the woods that still stood around there.

I don't remember sitting outside to read since I have come to the city. Maybe it is just me, but the noise, and environment feel different. I sometimes go to a park to read, but now I usually read in the quiet of my house.

Its kind of funny though because this townhouse was in Perrysburg! I finally said forget it and came back to Toledo. That place in Perrysburg was so bad that we couldn't even enjoy the outside. Our blabermouth party neighbor would start drinking beer eaarly in the afternoon, smoke her cigs and yap on her phone. (all the while she left her BABY inside)

I lived in an apartment for almost three years. For me, it was pretty quiet. But I felt the opposite effect. I was always worried about making noise, and disturbing my neighbors. I didn't even like the idea of taking a shower when I got home around midnight (or later if I had overtime). I could hear my neighbors so I suppose they could hear me. I used earphones to listen to my TV before I went to bed (usually round 2:00 AM). Although I did cut lose on Saturday nights until around midnight when I had friends over. Back then they could have "adults only" apartment complexes. I lived in the ones over at the corner of Heatherdowns and Byrne (next to the Burger King). Never heard kids crying.

The best setup I ever saw for young singles was a series of apartment complexes in Denver in the mid '70's. They actually got away with "no kids", and every Friday and Saturday night the management encouraged an "all units" party. You could go from apartment to apartment looking to "hookup" with the young professionals that flocked to Denver. I was there for only two weeks each years for about three years (to go backpacking) but it was the same each time I returned. Of course, this was before AIDS took the fun out of "trolling". Those apartments had a long waiting list.

Re: oldsendbrdy's question on the 9th about landlord loyalty ... .

Your lease wouldn't necessarily require you to STAY until it was up, but it would require you to PAY until the lease was up or the apartment was re-rented. So you could take off without a word. And it wouldn't be cost-effective for the landlord to sue you for the rent payments (probably). However, for little cost he/she could report you to the credit bureaus and your credit report would take a hit. Now, if you already had a low credit score, what would you care?

The best approach in that situation, however, would be to tell the landlord immediately that you needed to vacate, and to give him/her permission to begin marketing your apartment ASAP for showings. You'd probably still lose your security deposit -- because now the landlord would have to pay for normal turnover costs (advertising, painting, carpet cleaning, updates if necessary, repairs to any damages or regular wear-and-tear that you caused) that he/she hadn't budgeted for in that particular month. And you still would probably have to pay for anytime before a new lease was signed by a new tenant. But your credit would be intact and you'd have a good reference should you be looking to rent in the new town you were moving to.

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I have been a renter for a long time -- since 1991 I've either rented or lived in college dorms. It has suited me, mostly. No worries about plumbing, snow removal, lawn mowing, the furnace going out, bugs invading ... . Not my problem!

I would like to own a home, though. At some point. Renting certainly does impose some lifestyle restrictions and mandate courtesies you may not feel like giving at any particular moment, and I totally would not choose to have children in a rental environment if I had that choice to make. I am working on a down-payment fund and hopefully when the job market and housing market both stabilize a little (when?!) I will have an opportunity to buy a house. It's important for my future, particularly old-age. I do not want to be 70, incapable of working any longer, and have no alternatives but death, a neglectful state home or imposing on some relative. The "asset" of a home will be very important to me at that point, particularly when it is paid off.

jmleong, many people when they get elderly begin to think about getting rid of the house (that's why so many are disappointed that the market has headed south). I never got into that trap myself. Good neighbors help. I live next door to an elderly woman. She is 87, and my mom is 81 (who lives with me). This person tells me often that she could not live in the house alone if I did not do all the things for her that I do. She has children but one lives across the United States, and the other near Bryan, Ohio. But I don't do it out of charity.

Living in a poorer part of town we've had stable neighbors, and crackheads. I dread what will happen when she has to leave her home because she cannot take care of herself. I doubt I will have the money to buy the property, and her son will probably just want to sell the property (which is understandable). In such cases, the concern is the money, not who will occupy the house. So I do all I can to keep her there as a neighbor. Being charitable is in my self-interest; not just because I am a good guy.