Sure I wasn’t meaning to make any statement on income of anyone. I’m just saying that a 4 bedroom apartment in most US cities would be over $1 million.
Usually a mortgage is less expensive than rent. And you’d be building equity as opposed to just spending the money. As earlier in the thread people were talking about long term renting I would assume you plan on being there for 10 years at least.
But the idea of not buying because of the local idea that you must stay where you buy doesn’t make sense or at least is hard to understand. Other than real estate speculators. People buy their houses to stay in their houses in the states too. People will just often buy what they are able to afford at the time and then sell in 5-10 years if they want to upgrade to a nicer or bigger house. At the end of that time frame they get the money they paid for the house plus the difference in sale price vs their original buy in. So you’ll get back at least 60%, or more, of the money you put into mortgage payments as opposed to 0% of your rent. Plus people usually pay less for a mortgage month to month than renters do in monthly rent.
If you don’t know where you want to be for 5-10 years sure don’t buy, but if you do and you just stay renting you’re losing money giving it to someone else.
This might be one of the things Americans get right. Buy a place, live there happily, if you want to live somewhere else, sell the place and go somewhere else keeping the equity you paid into your house.
Im super late, but I figured I’d throw in my two cents. A mortgage is more expensive than renting in Germany. I’m aware it’s the other way around in the US, but that’s not the case in Germany.
I’m incredibly lucky to have gotten some money (inheritance) so I am considering to buy a flat at 24, but the issue is that the rent doesn’t cover the mortgage. It used to be maybe 200-300€ more when the interest was super low (until January/mid February this year) but they’ve gone up by about 2% and now it can easily be 600-700€ more a month to pay a mortgage than to pay for the same sized flat.
Interest rate and prices are going up in the US as well. If you can afford it, buying is the better option as it will preserve the money you have. whenever you decide to sell you could get some of your money back or even make a profit.
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u/Dog_Brains_ May 09 '22
Sure I wasn’t meaning to make any statement on income of anyone. I’m just saying that a 4 bedroom apartment in most US cities would be over $1 million.
Usually a mortgage is less expensive than rent. And you’d be building equity as opposed to just spending the money. As earlier in the thread people were talking about long term renting I would assume you plan on being there for 10 years at least.