Is there anything worse than home ownership.

Stock Market is the best way to create wealth.

check your facts wrote:

You are either lying or you bought at a very low price in which case you made an incredible investment.

Because I'm guessing you don't live in the Northeast. This can definitely happen in NY, NJ, CT, MA, etc.

My property tax is currently 2/5ths of my total mortgage payment.

I'd really like these actually put in order. Can someone do that? New thread if necessary.

What is constantly breaking? I've been in a home for 16 years, built in '86, and the only thing I've replaced is the hot water heater. I realize the furnace is coming up, and I've been saving for that.

I pay a neighborhood kid $15 a week to do all my lawn care, including dog crap pick up. It takes him less than an hour.

Winterizing your house? Blowing out the sprinkler system? Takes me less than 30 minutes. Or, again, you can pay someone $45 once a year to do it for you.

Sounds like you could benefit from outsourcing some of the work you don't enjoy.

I honestly try to build home "improvements" into my home maintenance. I knew I would need a new rear deck. So, as part of that process, I redesigned my back yard and about tripled the usable space, and made it so it's basically no maintenance. I'm doing the same thing in my front yard this summer.

I don't have to do these things, because we don't have an HOA. My neighbor hasn't touched his house in over a decade. Looks like a sh!thole. He's needed exterior paint since I moved in, and has just let it go. It's amazing. Especially considering exterior paint in our neighborhood costs about 0.5% of the value of your house. Now that he's let it go too long, they'll need to replace trim, and maybe siding, and that will probably 10x the cost of a paint job.

My house payment is fixed and has not changed in the 12 years that I have had my 30yr fixed mortgage. If I had rented, it might have been cheaper per month, but not by a lot. Of course, the rent would have gone up by 3% per year on average. THAT is compound interest that is not in your favor so it would be more like a 50% increase in monthly cost over the 12 years. My salary DID go up in that time, so it is easier and easier to pay that fixed mortgage.

I had to put a down payment on the house, but that money is not lost. I will get it back if I sell the house and it is listed as an asset for any credit application. The value of the house has gone up despite the dip in the middle. Housing almost always goes up because it is based on a percentage of salaries that are always going up. This is not guaranteed, but barring unusual financial circumstances, a house should hold its value or rise over the long term.

Yes, there is maintenance. I do almost all of it myself so it really only costs what the materials cost. People who don't do maintenance themselves will pay a premium to have repairs and upgrades done.

In the not too distant future, I will have my house paid off. I will still pay property tax, insurance, and maintenance, but will not have that monthly payment anymore. The renter will ALWAYS have it and it will ALWAYS go up.

You must be over 30 years on the roofing, expect something there. Plumbing, especially shut off valves can need attention. Appliances should be on the list. Winterizing can include storm windows, depending where you live.

Being homeless

Can't you get fixed rate mortgage in USA?

So for those of you complaining about property tax going up, you do realize that a landlord would have to pass that cost on to you as well, right? They don't just pay that out of the goodness of their heart.

Property tax will be a cost to you whether you rent or buy, no matter where you live. But it will be tax-deductible (well, up to $10k at the moment) if you own.

consider this wrote:

Doesn't mean they are not. I'm 7 years into a 30 year mortgage on my 3rd house. Given the low interest rate I got at that time I'm not putting any extra money into paying it off when I've gotten massively higher returns investing it elsewhere.

Moran. Home mortgages have you begin the loan term by paying interest in the first several years until about half way through it's split half into interest and half principal into the actual home cost and then only at the end are you paying almost directly for the home. So in reality you have been paying almost entirely interest this first 7 years. Go look at the projected split for interest/principal for the 30 years of your loan and realize what an idiot you have been to think you weren't paying much interest the last few years. Basically all you have been paying is interest. Home loans are structured this way so that the lender gets your money up front so that even if you foreclose or refinance a few years in they mitigated their risk by taking your money up front.

For the average person at year 1 of a 30 year term they will probable save $1 in interest for every $1 they pre-pay. So if you put in $1000 prepayment to principal the first year you will probably save yourself an additional $1000 that you would have paid in interest by the end of the 30 years. This may not beat a 7% or even 3% return over investing in the open market for the next 30 years, but it's a no risk guarantee that saves you a lot of money. You could use prepaying your home as a bit of a hedge against the open market. But if you believe home values track with inflation anyway, then it's all a wash.

TLDR when you start a home mortgage term you are paying 99% toward interest and no principal. You can lower how much you are wasting on interest significantly if you prepay early in the term.

And what is all this prepping a house for summer and winter?

You mentioned moving into an apartment as that's l you can afford for what you are now paying for your house. Plus good luck with the neighbours and how much is the rent going to be in 20 years?

Houses built now are even worse than those in 80's and if anything like her the plot size is much smaller. Might suite you as less mowing!

And you end up paying off the note much earlier at which time you have a payment of zero.

But if you are going to move every few years that changes things a lot.

You're an idiot. Mortgages aren't rigged to make you pay interest the first few years, that just the way the math works out. In the first few years the principal is relatively higher so the interest on it is higher than in later years. I could pay off my mortgage right now if I want to, but the return on it would only the interest rate of the loan (under 4%). I can and do invest and earn way more.

House built in 1988 - I bought it in 1996, paid it off in 2007. 3000 square feet - pool, finished basement, ...$5000 per year property tax.

Since moving in, standard maintenance stuff, but decided to get new roof, replacement windows, new furnace and A/C - both of which required professionals.

Every other maintenance items have been handled by me with some help from YouTube and whoever I can find to talk to at Home Depot. It's usually fun and a real sense of accomplishment follows.

We have severe winters, and my winter prep takes less than an hour - don't know what you could possibly be doing to prep for winter that makes you so miserable.

This is why wealthy people rent and don't buy houses for living.

They buy houses and rent them out, so it becomes an asset and not a debt.

Most homeowners have money going out, and not money coming in. So you own something , but no money is coming

, so you're losing money.

Same thing with financing a car. People buy a car, and money is going out ( financing, insurance, gas, repairs, etc), and then the car loses value each year. A car is one of the worst investments to make. Now if you buy a car, and use as an uber or lyft, or rent the car out like a taxi, then you have money coming in which pays for the expense, plus make a profit in the end.

Rich people basically use debt to make money

Same thing goes with a Credit Card. Most people use a credit card to buy items that don't generate money, so it is a debt. Wealthy people use credit cards to buy property or an asset, something that will bring money in.

So is your house bringing in more money than what is going out, or is your house putting out more money than what is coming in? Do you own debt? Or do you own an asset?

If you're going to insult someone, it's *moron*.

Now that that is out of the way, you're way off base here and went off on a tangent that was almost entirely irrelevant. The way the amortization schedule is set up has less to do with "banks being greedy and mitigating risk" and more to do with the composition of the loan. Interest is higher up front because the outstanding balance on the loan is HIGHER. It decreases as more payments hit into the principle over time. There is no gimmick or "frontloading" (LOL) its how the math of the amortization schedule works. You have to pay the interest first, then the rest of the determined payment hits the principal. As a result, the interest portion of the payment continues to drop each month/payment.

No "greedy banks" "frontloading" or any of that other bs that some genius told you. ITS THE MATH OF THE AMORTIZATION.

While you are correct that there is more interest up front, the way you are thinking about the problem is incorrect. Banks do their homework before they lend you the money. You should actually try working this problem out on an HP12C or other financial calculator, so you can see how the math works.

I bought a little historic craftsman bungalow in 2010. It has just about doubled in value and tons of new restaurants, bars and shops have opened up within walking distance of my house in a huge metro area where walking and biking to places usually isn't an option.

I have had to do tons and tons of projects on my house and will do a complete renovation in about 2-3 years. I have rewired the entire house, ripped out and replaced the insulation in the attic, replaced the AC and furnace, redid the landscaping with a sprinkler system, garden beds and lots of fruit trees, replaced or repaired all the appliances in my kitchen, replumbed the bathroom, refinished my deck twice and done lots and lots of painting. The renovation will add on @ 500 sq ft and fix the foundation.

I can see how it would be a drag to have a house in the bubs with an HOA that prevents you from planting anything or painting your house a difference color and spending all your time in traffic just so your kids of K-12 schools. But I am 15-20 min from downtown and rarely get in traffic. I will probably have to send my kids to private schools, but the schools in the burbs and kinda scary anyway.

This thread pops up monthly here and the debate could go on forever. The bottom line is there are advantages to both renting and owning, and a million factors that will go into each individual situation.

Also, I recently bought a house built in the 1950's. The first thing the inspector said was, "the 50's and 60's were a great era in home building, houses built in the 70's and 80's are sh*t." I guess you're finding this to be a true statement.

New homes are also largely sh*t, (unless you can design and control the whole build process) - the rate at which they're "popped up" now is astounding.

Thingscomeup wrote:

You must be over 30 years on the roofing, expect something there. Plumbing, especially shut off valves can need attention. Appliances should be on the list. Winterizing can include storm windows, depending where you live.

I've been very lucky with roofs. When I moved in, the roof was about to need to be replaced, and it hailed. Free new roof. And just last Summer, after 14 years on the roof, it hailed. Free new roof. Not really free, but at least I'm getting some value out of my homeowners insurance.

As far as appliances go, I have had to replace the washer and dryer, and maybe the fridge. But I just hop on craigslist. I think I got my washer and dryer for about $90 and my fridge for $150.

I'm confused about storm windows. My parents had them, but they were permanently installed. I have a friend that has a cabin in the middle of the rocky mountains, at about 11,000' elevation, and to winterize his cabin takes us less than an hour. I'm still trying to figure out what this huge winterizing task is that the OP is complaining about.

For what it's worth, I also owned a rental property for 15 years too, and my repairs on that place were a new fridge for $600, and a new hot water heater that I installed myself, for I think $300. $5 a month. Most of you spent more than that on your latte's this morning. I don't drink coffee.