[chrsw]

My rent did not go up this year, actually. And it did not go up one year during COVID either.

Plus, as a renter, I took the option of renting in a cheaper (unattractive) building with no amenities in an otherwise expensive neighborhood in a very expensive city, to be close to work.

If I wanted to buy a condo in the same neighborhood as I live in now, roughly the same layout, I’m looking at a monthly mortgage payment plus condo fees at least 75% more than my _total_ cost to rent where I am now, including utilities.

Is owning a home the financially responsible thing to do, generally? Yes. But owning a home is more money and more work than most people wondering about the decision realize, even if in the end you come out on top when you look at your bottom line.

[exe34]

> My rent did not go up this year, actually. And it did not go up one year during COVID either.

And yet properties around you will have gone up by some average amount. When your landlord does raise your rent (or when you move out, as the pro-landlords keep telling us people love to do), the rent you will pay at the new place will have kept pace with the average raise.