| > I have friends whose parents left them their primary residence. Mine did not. I fail to see how that factors in to buying a property. You have friends who benefited from an inheritance. > Owning a house in San Francisco is like having a standing offer of a million dollars to move to the Midwest. Owning a house in the Midwest is like having an $xyz offer to move to <area with even lower house prices>. The offer exists whether you take it or not. You could sell up and live in a tent too. I don’t believe most people are willing to uproot their lives simply because they can get cheaper housing elsewhere. I’m sure it factors in but it’s rarely the driving motivator. I think some of the points you made were fair. As a homeowner for instance you do generally have access to cheaper capital. > You can borrow against your equity. What equity? You advocated for putting as little as 5% down. You’re already going to have a higher than average interest rate and with such a small deposit it’ll be easy to tip into negative equity. You only see the benefit years down the line and that relies on house prices rising in the short term. > Because you can buy with so little down, having a lot of equity means it's pretty easy to buy again, I’m not really following this argument. You’re suggesting buying with a small downpayment. You don’t have a lot of equity. |
I mean, somebody had to decide to buy the house at some point in time. I would have told them to do it.
> Owning a house in the Midwest is like having an $xyz offer to move to <area with even lower house prices>.
Yes, that is correct. The argument generalizes.
> I don’t believe most people are willing to uproot their lives simply because they can get cheaper housing elsewhere.
If I offer you a million dollars to move, then you're free to turn that down. What you are not free to do is pretend that it's not a real offer that you have that other people don't have. It exists. It's real. And if you own a home in California, then you have that offer. And other people do not. What you choose to do with that offer is up to you.
> What equity? You advocated for putting as little as 5% down. You’re already going to have a higher than average interest rate and with such a small deposit it’ll be easy to tip into negative equity.
The house I bought in 2020 is worth $xxx more today than what I paid for it. Had that not happened, then I'd just live here, either way, and I'd be in no worse position than had I stayed in the apartment I left to move here. (As you yourself argued, I need a roof over my head, anyway.) Since it did happen, I get to keep every bit of the upside, tax free.