[abalashov]

Indeed. This is why I'm a preferential life-long renter, although I think the primary reason is that I can't stand living anywhere for more than 2-5 years. So much friction to move, unwinding this risky position very expensively, with loads of transaction fees stacked--I can't understand the appeal. Even owning a condo was enough for me to realise I don't want to own my own bare metal, and that I look at housing as a cloud service of sorts, where much of what I pay for is just for all operational questions to be someone else's problem and to relieve myself of the burden of owning and liquidating what I would otherwise have to CAPEX.

For me, it's hard to put a price on the reclamation of _time_ spent otherwise thinking about those issues, to say nothing of the money. I just don't have time to think about even 1/60th of what's involved in getting vendor quotes for roof reshingling or painting or whatever, and even if I do have the time, I'd rather pull my fingernails out than spend it that way.

I sure do miss that mortgage interest deduction, though. I had no desire to accrue equity in the property--and indeed, if I had more equity, I would have lost even more money than I did in the 2008 crash--but I loved my super high-interest loan. It meant that my most of my housing payment was tax-deductible, and that's fantastic. My only regret, besides buying itself, is that I didn't take out an interest-only mortgage.

However, this isn't a Great Recession sob story. The condo would be way too much work and cognitive bandwidth theft even in the best of times, and that's like a tenth of the structural, landscaping, etc. issues one has to think about with an SFH. No thanks, man. I have other stuff to do.

[Sohcahtoa82]

> I loved my super high-interest loan. It meant that my most of my housing payment was tax-deductible, and that's fantastic.

Absolutely insane.

I guarantee that the tax deduction did not offset the extra interest you paid and that overall, it's a net loss for you.

The deduction reduces your taxable income, it does not reduce your tax directly. If you paid $30,000 in interest, it might reduce your tax by ~$10,000, so you're still down $20,000. Meanwhile, if you had half the interest rate, you might pay $15,000 in interest, reducing your tax by ~$5,000, so you're only down by $10,000.

And that doesn't even get into how the standard deduction works, which you can't take if you itemize so you can take the mortgage interest deduction.

I don't think there's a single scenario where choosing to spend more money than you otherwise would just for tax benefits results in a net positive.

[abalashov]

It's absolutely a net loss, but the $55k deficiency when I walked away was worse. However, I realise that this was an artifact of the recession.

Less flippantly: I look at it as a question of government distorting the housing market with tax policy, and whether to have a deductible housing payment or not. Any conceivable appreciation is perhaps a bonus, but I truly don't care.

Re: standard deduction -- it wasn't then what it is today, post-Trump tax cuts.

[greedo]

Moving every 2-5 years sounds like one of the rings of Hell from Dante.

[abalashov]

Moving is no fun at all (and also costs money! deposits, movers and the rest of it), but the only thing worse is staying in one place. I just can't do it.

I mean, of course I tell myself this is the last time we're ever moving, and that this is the forever spot. However, experience suggests this is never, ever the case, and there's no actual precedent for that.

[rjh29]

Staying in the same place for decades seems like hell to me too.

[abalashov]

It is my experience that people who see things that way and people who see things the opposite way truly inhabit incommensurable realities.

[bobanrocky]

Wow, moving every 2-5 years? I suppose it works with no kids, or spouse ..

[abalashov]

I have both and it's still doable, as long as your spouse is as into it as you are.

Mine isn't going to stay put for more than a few years either. We enable each other's moving fetish.

[donflamenco]

At least with me (married filing jointly), when Trump raised the standard deduction so high, the mortgage interest deduction doesn't come into play. It hasn't seemed to change my total tax liability, it just made my tax return easier to do. I haven't had to itemize for years now.

[abalashov]

It is true that the interest deduction is not nearly as valuable as it was in my ownership days (late 2000s/early 2010s). My total annual interest of those days wouldn't even meet the individual standard deduction now, and that was a 6.65%/8.25% 80/20 loan (30-year fixed) with essentially 99% financing, back when that was a thing.

However, my assumption, given the cumulative inflation since then, is that my payments would be twice as large today and easily clear the individual deduction, as long as it wasn't one of those lower-interest loans people like. I hate those.