[rogerrogerr]

Been thinking about this a lot. Curious what the rational folks of HN would suggest for me. Fact pattern:

- I'm in the 25-30yo range, single male

- Living with parents because I can; there's no friction and I mostly enjoy it. And I'm saving a ton of money.

- Remote senior SWE for a non-FAANG, but still doing around $200k/yr between my W2 and a few other things

- NW somewhere around 400-500k.

I could easily go buy a house, it just seems like... a trap? Home prices are stalled at a little over 7x median household income, a bit above where they were in 2006 [0]. Everyone who tells me to buy property seem less like they have my best interest in mind and more like they're either repeating the cult saying of the last 50 years, or they're invested in a class of bigger fools existing.

I fear the one-two punch of me becoming unemployable (AI is getting _really_ good at even the niche stuff I do) and the market crashing. I'm glad I don't have dependents to worry about; even more glad I don't have a mortgage to service.

If I had to go live on my own, the napkin math I've been doing, even ignoring closing costs and house maintenance costs, is that I can rent a house for cheaper than I can buy a similar house in my area. This is "in the long run"; meaning at the end of 30 years I will have higher net worth having rented than bought, with conservative estimates of market performance and aggressive estimates of rent increases and house value appreciation.

It all just seems nuts. I see people my age working at grocery stores (a good and honorable line of work) who are buying houses and I don't understand how they make ends meet.

Am I stupid?

[0]: https://www.longtermtrends.com/home-price-median-annual-inco...

[stevenhuang]

If you rent and remain invested in the market, it's a wash. So yes there's nothing wrong with renting. It just tends to not be effective for most people since they lack the self control and discipline to invest in stock equities, since lifestyle creep means they tend to overspend. A mortgage for most people is then a form of forced savings which helps them build equity through rising land values.

[Vaslo]

What about the relationship thing? Most significant others don't want to live with their in-laws and fear failure to launch. Clearly not the case of a failure with your great income. That said, this isn't as much a buy a house point as it is a get your own place point, which could be either rent or buy.

[rogerrogerr]

Oh sure, if I found an SO I'd move out. No question. Nothing on the horizon and I've never even met anyone I would be seriously interested in, but that can change quickly.

But as you say, that's orthogonal to the rent/buy question.

[0xbadcafebee]

Do you want to buy a house? Do you need to buy a house? If the answer is no to both, then don't buy a house.

[rogerrogerr]

I want to buy a house, but I do not want to end up crazy underwater on a house. If I thought values would be at-least-stable I probably would buy. Everything just seems so bubbly that it feels like a trap.

[0xbadcafebee]

The general consensus is that there is never a best time to own a home (for example, rates are much better today than in the 80s). If you want it, figure out how to pay for it, and buy it. Keep enough savings to weather a year of unemployment. You might be unemployed for longer, in which case you'll just figure out other options, like forbearance/hardship program/loan modification, state unemployment, temporary work, renting out rooms, food and utility assistance, etc. Worst case you can sell the home.