[rehitman]

Exactly, this is just an article by realtors to stress out people to buy homes, even if they cannot afford it or doesn't match their life situation. There are lots of cost associated with owning home that people usually ignore. They just see the mortgage, which sometime is less than their current rent. However, in my experience mortgage payment is just around 60% percent of the cost. You have taxes, more expensive insurance, and depending on your house. HOA, landscaping. large maintenance like furnace, water heater, roof, crawl space, and if you want to sell it in 10 years from now, you have to spend around 10-20k at the time to update appliance.

I don't want to say it is always a bad investment. My point is it is a lot more complex investment and needs research, and not buying can also be a good option for some people.

[walshemj]

but renting has lots of additional costs in the UK you can have the following just to move in:

Tenancy Fee £360 Admin Fee £90 Referencing Fee £60 Checkin Fee £90 Guaentor Fee £90 Deed of Guarantee £120 Sat Checkin £72

[calgoo]

Here in Barcelona, Spain, we normally have to do a deposit of normally 2 to 5 months and depending on your contract and share some communal costs such as garbage collection etc (might be included in price already). There could be 1 month more if it was contracted using an agency.

[DamnYuppie]

Those fees, by comparison to home purchases, are very minimal. The doc fees to buy a house in the US alone runs well over $1300, that doesn't even include paying for points or inspections. You have the same type of fees to rent in the US as well, credit checks, deposits, pet fees, and move in fees for certain buildings depending upon access and parking.

[walshemj]

but that is amortized over a much longer time frame than renters

[DamnYuppie]

That is probably true yet that time frame is on average 4-7 years, not the 30 years most people think.

[firebird84]

Really? Are those paid yearly or only when signing a new lease?

[Hates_]

Those are normally all just at the start of a tenancy. Agents still charge around £100 to extend the agreement after a year.