What do renters have, but they don’t want? and how to avoid it!
OUCH!
As a renter in the Metro Denver area you may be feeling the pinch of skyrocketing rental costs more severely than elsewhere in the state. Were you thinking the time might finally be right to buy instead?
According to the 2015 Housing Pulse Survey, 61% of renters say it’s a high priority to chuck the lease agreement and own their home.
This debate has raged for decades and both sides always make good points, but in the end, the choice comes down to one thing; WHAT IS BEST FOR YOU PERSONALLY?
For you the decision to own may be purely emotional and the actual facts and figures don’t need to be weighed. You want your house to be exactly that, your house.
Or perhaps it may be that the rental choice isn’t really a choice at all but more of a default position.
Could be that right now, the lifestyle you live demands a “ready to fly” policy that places home ownership into the hardship category. Any benefit you might experience as a homeowner is outweighed by the need to be free to go at a moment’s notice.
Married or single, with or without children, economic considerations play a major role in which side of the rent or own debate you are likely to come down on.
Even if you did decide you want to own your place, being strapped for cash or unable to qualify for a mortgage takes that decision right out of your hands, right? Well sure, you could tighten the budget belt, lock in a savings plan and do what must be done to clean up that credit score! (Just saying….)
For the sake of argument, let’s take a look at those pluses and minuses we might encounter in the debate of whether it is better to own a home or rent a space to occupy for a time.
8 SETTLING THOUGHTS TO THINK ABOUT
- Pick your neighborhood; where do you really want to live? Uptown? Downtown? Rural? Suburbia? On a dead end street? Cul-de-sac? In the middle of all the action? Out in the country? When you buy, the choices are wide open and almost unlimited (dependent on your finances and availability)
- Build a custom home; don’t like anything available on the market? You have the option of purchasing land and having a home built to your specifications
- The survey says…; people who own a home enjoy a greater sense of stability and security. It also indicates that home owners tend to be healthier and financially better off
- Freedom to decorate however you choose
- Freedom from worry over losing a lease and being forced to relocate which means rounding up some friends who won’t mind helping you move AGAIN!
- Equity gains; like most markets, real estate goes through cycles where prices fluctuate, but overall, home prices rise year over year. Each dollar gained over the price you pay for the home is profit in your pocket when the time to sell does come around
- Since home ownership tends to signal a certain stability, there is a tendency by credit card and loan companies to offer better terms and interest rates to those who own
- and tax benefits; while some of the new laws are not as advantageous as they used to be, tax benefits to home owners remain a big plus
THE 4 NEGATIVE SIDES OF OWNING, BUT…
- Property taxes – BUT it would be a disservice not to point out the pluses of this particular minus which include paying for some of the things we take for granted but are real pluses in our communities. Things like public roads and public parks and public schools and public servants that we may not appreciate fully until we need them like police and fire departments
- Maintenance and repairs – which can seem like time consuming money sucking monsters at times, BUT on the other hand they absolutely contribute to that big plus that’s like an automatic savings plan called home equity
- Loss of flexibility – BUT there would be that option of renting while you need to be gone which could cover costs and net you a little profit in the bargain
- That monthly mortgage payment –BUT having fixed financial obligations sure makes budgeting a whole lot easier to accomplish which leads to that financial increase that is a major plus
So there you have it, the debate laid out clearly and simply. Which side do you think wins?