[csomar]

Are you saying that during the 11 years you never had an electrical issue, window/door breaking, a paint job, a clogged pipe, mold growing somewhere, a tree that needed handling, etc... You either have very high quality materials, don't care or were just lucky. Usually something (small/medium) breaks every 2-3 months or so and something (medium/big) breaks every 3-4 years or so. Depends on usage too (1 person is very different than a family of 5 where 3 are kids jumping around).

[Sohcahtoa82]

> electrical issue, window/door breaking, a paint job, a clogged pipe, mold growing somewhere, a tree that needed handling, etc

I did forget about two of those. I did need to get some trees handled a few years ago. Was about $3,000 to get like 5 trees (A couple over 150 feet) removed. And we did get the house repainted, but that wasn't completely necessary, but was a nice to have. Wasn't that expensive, surprisingly.

But have not had electrical issues (Unless you count installing an EV charger), broken door/window (Unless you count my dumb ass trying to walk through a screen door and tearing it up, but that's a $150 replacement from Home Depot I install myself in 5 minutes), no clogged pipes, no mold.

Even my water heater has been fine. No idea when this tankless heater was installed, but it's been 11 years and no leaks or problems.

I did have the garage door tension spring suddenly snap, but I'm fairly sure that was only $300 to get fixed.

Again though, if I was renting the cost of all this work would have been included in rent. Sure, renting makes living costs more stable, but in the long run, I'm not convinced there's a scenario where it comes out cheaper, even if you're investing the difference. Rents in my area have gone up 75-100% in the last 10 years. My mortgage stayed the same.

EDIT: I suppose if you're in an area where rents are significantly cheaper than mortgage payments, it may be cheaper to rent. But in my area, it's very close to 1:1. When I bought my house, it was $340K, minus a $20K down payment. $320K at 4% for 30 years was $1527/month. Plus property tax brought it to about $1,900/month. Meanwhile, the rental estimated value was $1,800/month.

[csomar]

Rent is determined by supply/demand. In the USA, rents are higher (than buy) because rental businesses are dominated by companies who can do the math. In many parts of the world, rental businesses are small/micro by someone/family who want to own property.

See this: https://www.numbeo.com/property-investment/gmaps.jsp?indexTo...

So for many people around the world, it's more economical to rent. You are basically being subsidized by the people who are obsessed with the idea of owning a property.

[Panzer04]

Yep, this.

A unit (multi-dwelling property, not necessarily an apartment) might cost 650k here, but only rent for 500$/w. 25kpa is a 4% return on that principle, before expenses (property management, maintenance, rates/taxes etc).

The only context in which it makes sense is if capital gains/land value goes up, which it has historically but that's no guarantee.

Houses make all these numbers even worse - higher upfront expense (land value) and lower rental yield (they rent for more, but tenants prefer a better house/dwelling more than they care about a back yard, so cost goes up more than rent does)