The CCC wrote:I'm better off financially than when I rented. My rent was $900/month with a expected raise to $1000/month. My mortgage was $1033/per month. So that is a wash. I was reading the other day that the apartment is now going for $2500/month. My net worth however has increased substantially, and with my mortgage paid off. My house is mine.
I love seeing that. I really do. That's the great thing about a mortgage is that you lock in a fixed price, for the most part. Rent, not so much. I call a mortgage the 20-year good call.
Taking flipping a house and/or a hot market off the table, if you're going to stick around in an area for 15-20 years that's about when a mortgage really pays huge dividends. Sooner if you pay your mortgage off <15 years.
For example rent at the complex where I lived in 2015 has already bumped ~$100-150/month in just a year's time from when I left. I suspect it'll go up another $50 around Summer time. So. ALREADY, in less than a year my mortgage is ~$150 cheaper per month (I bought an old farmhouse on the West side of SLC and locked in a sweet rate). If I project out what rent will be over the course of 20 years here in SLC, and stick with a conservative estimate I'm ahead of the cost by easily $40k. Probably more like $75k. However, I'm paying my house off over the next three to four years. Factor in not paying mortgage interest over 11-16 years and you're looking easily another 60k, and I'm being really conservative just to make a point.
In other words, HOME OWNERSHIP BENEFITS POOR to MIDDLE CLASS PEOPLE FAR MORE THAN ANYONE ELSE.
I get renting if you're bouncing around a lot. But if you're sticking around you really can't beat homeownership, and this is coming from a dude who has shat about 30k the first year alone into his home just to make it liveable.
- Doc
