Buying or renting a home?

[Orange]

Its going to be years before i move out, but it would be nice to start making up my mind now. what would be best buying or renting? To me renting seems better becuase you have alot less worry you havnt invested like 1/4 of your lifes income in one thing that could burn down. It seems to me that people end up paying more for a morgage than they do for renting It seems silly its not like its living your life for the now. For example if my parents rented insted we would be able to have a much bigger house. But just becuase of the chance that you might be chucked out if your renting and have to find somwhere else they have somthing not as good. Also people say they want to buy becuase it gives them financial security and acts as an investment.. but not really becuase if the price of a house go's up that meens that all the other houses price go up, so you cant really gain from it. Im sure theres much better things you can invest in than a house anyway. Is there a reason why so many people buy insted of renting, I really don't get it, there seems to be so many downsides to it and I cant see why it would benefit. I dont think im ever goign to buy a house unless i have all the money to buy it in one go and not have a morgage . yeah.. why is this? thanks
Gary.

[The Large Dude Scam]

I guess it's going to be like at least 16 years of additional life time before you might consider to buy your home. The market and economy might look completly different by then. So even if someone would give you excellent advice, it would still be totally outdated the day you need it.

[JimOfferman]

There is no simple right or wrong answer here, because it depends a lot on your situation.

I only bought because renting was more expensive for me.

[blackfm]

I agree 100%
There is no right or wrong here.
Everyone's situation is different and requires a different reaction.

I asked a friend of mine yesterday during diner. "So, now that your business is doing well, are you going to buy a house now?"

No one is wrong to wait or buy now. Events that happen in the future which we can not control will make a final judgment on your decision e.g. a housing crisis, a natural disaster and even stuff you have not thought of.

So just gamble and do either. Off course if you have lots of cash as opposed to getting a long term mortgage, it is not a gamble, pay up front and enjoy yourself.

Hmmm...Having a lot of cash

[Dan.Linehan]

I think Jim hit right on it -- do whichever is cheaper.

In Ohio, I could buy a nice house for $120,000, with only a $700 monthly payment. But, for $700 in Ohio I could also rent a huge 2,000 sq ft apartment. So that's kind of a toss up. Here in the Bay Area of California however, a small house is $600,000. That's a $3,000 monthly payment. Rent on a nice, medium sized apartment is only about a third of that.

In Ohio, I would consider buying. Here in California, I rent. I might consider building sometime, here since raw materials to build a house don't add up to nearly what one is worth once it's built.

[Ceros]

I'll choose home sitting for now~~~.

Why pay someone to rent a house to sleep in when they can be paying me to sleep in their house?

[Restrikted]

Call me naive, but I've been raised on the idea (and it makes sense) that renting is like the anti-christ. Think of it this way, when you rent a house, when you're done renting it, you may of had a place to live for a while, but you just threw that money away. If you buy a house, you're making an investment and have potential to actually make money over time, depending on property values.

[xelanoimis]

Yep, buy a house and when you finish with the morgage, the house is yours. If you sell it then, you get most of your money back. Especially if prices are going up. If you just rent one, in the end you won't have anything.

And because your parents bought instead of rented, you'll have something to inherit.

As for buying with the money down... well if I didn't think like that 10 years ago, I could've bought houses 10 times cheaper than now.

Anyway the best solution is to buy a bigger house and give half of it (or 2/3) for renting, to get the morgage payed. But for such a big house, you'll need a big deposit to start with. So you can sell your small house you bought a few years ago... oh it's good you decided then to buy and not to pay rent...