[richwater]

Rent (in dollar terms) is the most you will ever pay per month.

Mortgage (in dollar terms) is the least you will ever pay per month.

Combine that with the ease of movement between renting and owning and it's absolutely something many people prefer.

[ghaff]

I'm glad I own a house but it can be a massive headache, expense, and time sink. It also places a big constraint on moving as you say. I absolutely wouldn't have wanted one the first 15 years or so out of school and I've been lucky enough that jobs have never forced me to move.

[freitzkriesler2]

Ease of movement is such a meme. Every time I've sold houses in 2nd or 3rd tier markets they've sold and gone into escrow in less than 2 months.

Maybe back when housing wasn't so tight this was the case. That isn't it anymore. Sure you have to queue up a bunch of things like a realtor and a mortgage broker but the benefits of getting equity outweigh the supposed convenience of renting .

[ghaff]

It's also often house vs. apartment. There's absolutely friction associated with moving from a house with its contents to another house than there is to moving from, say, a 1000 sq. ft. apartment to another. It's still a move but it's much less of an undertaking and, as a renter, you also tend to have a mindset that you will be moving.

[skyyler]

I’d love to see some numbers on the percentage of current renters that would prefer to own.

[sgerenser]

Probably the majority at what they think the house should cost. Probably very few at what the monthly payment for a market rate mortgage + downpayment actually costs, based on the recent run-up in home values and interest rates over the past 3-4 years.

E.g. would you prefer to rent the same house at $2000 month, or own at $4000/mo? It might not be this bad in Atlanta but in many areas the rent/buy ratio is that bad now.

[bombcar]

You'd have to correct for so many things - and it's actually quite hard to get down to the reality.

Obviously almost all renters would take a "free and clear" ownership of the same house they're currently renting; that's a six figure freebee.

And many owners will not fully exhibit "buyer's remorse" just because the cost of ownership is so high.

And no home-owner loves facing down the $10-50k repairs that a house can need now and then.

[ghaff]

Yeah. I live in an old house on a little bit of property. It's paid-off but it's still probably something close to $2K/month between property taxes, insurance, utilities/oil, and more or less steady state maintenance--some of which could probably be deferred but...

[bombcar]

It's totally worth the exercise (it's not terribly hard) to "rent to yourself" on paper, just to get a feel for everything involved.

And like you see, it is much more than you'd expect at first, because so many things only "pop up" every 10/20/30 years. A $20k roof replacement done every 30 years is $60 a month or so, and how many of those kind of things are hiding in a house? Hint: the depreciation tables from the IRS are not a gift ...

[ghaff]

I used to (half-)joke that had I known how much work and money my house was going to be, I'd probably just have gone with a newer condo.

I agree with the points upthread that a lot of people like the idea of home ownership but don't appreciate all the ongoing costs--including the amortized costs of unexpected things. (I just paid $1K to get a big tree that came down dealt with which fortunately didn't cause any actual damage.

[skyyler]

>88% of Americans would rather own a home than rent. Specifically, 76% of renters would rather own a home, but only 2% of homeowners would rather rent.

https://www.lendingtree.com/home/mortgage/homeownership-rent...

Pretty clear to me.

[sgerenser]

That’s a completely dumb statistic since it doesn’t talk about the cost. Of course someone would rather have something rather than nothing, if the something cost nothing. In reality, if the “something” cost $1 Million and only saved you $2500/mo, is it actually preferred?

[skyyler]

"Cost"

Paying rent instead of a mortgage is a cost.

If the rent is bringing in less money than the upkeep costs of the property, why is the landlord renting it out?

There's an entire segment of the market that is priced out of buying. That doesn't mean they want to rent.

[0_____0]

I know a lot of people who would love to have the money to buy.

Whether they would rather have a house - or - rent but have a down payment's worth of money, I think is a better question

[freitzkriesler2]

It's high , many renters have given up hope they'll ever own.