Thoughts on owning houses/property

[mizarchivist]

After a passing conversation with rintrahroars  I felt like I wanted to share my thoughts on renting vs. owning.
TL;DR? I am in favor of renting.

Details...

What many of you probably don't know is that I was born here in Boston, but when my parents couldn't manage to get a mortgage in 1975, we all moved back to Ohio, which is where I grew up. Funny, the housing market isn't particularly more accommodating 35 years later.

I've been in Lexington- renting- since 2002 with quiet_elegance  and purple_terror . The good things I can say about the house: 

• We don't share it with anyone, including the landlords
• Rent is stable and within reason
• The kitchen is big enough for more than one person to work
• We are walking distance to downtown: 2 bus lines, ice cream shops, library, restaurants
• Neighborhood is nice and quiet

However... there's a fair bit of frustrating

• Insanely cheap landlords who thought a quick shampooing would make the muppet pelt shag carpet acceptable back when we moved in. It wasn't. We bought new upstairs carpet on our own. This translates to:
• Rickety appliances, except the stove, which I bought myself last year because the old one did work, but was inconsistent at best.
• Antiquated electrical system
• Non functioning insulation
• Drafty windows
• Garage held up by good intentions and dreams
• No option to really plant a garden without the landlord weed-wacking anything that gets in his way
• Oil burner heating that requires alchemy to come close to functioning
• Not enough elbow room. The guys share computer room space, and my office/craft space is the kitchen
• One bathroom
• Unfinished basement, which leaks whenever it rains for 3 days in a row
• Hopefully the roof won't leak this year

I had always thought that when we moved, it would be to a place that we owned. However watching the contortions that the housing market has done make me skittish. Corralling 3 very different financial entities that is our household? That's beyond daunting.  quiet_elegance  has been out of work since June. Union work is better than what it was before, but there are still many moments of unemployment. That dangled promise of early Journeymanship did not follow through, so he has to keep working insanely hard to finish his requirements and move up. (Yeah, I'm bitter as hell about that backsies).
Then I watched some random video detailing the financial crisis and the facet of the crisis involving the myth that you must own a house in order to be really an adult here in the States. I've been doing just fine in my rented world. That realization that I don't have to buy a house in order to move was weight off my shoulders. It means we can stop making do with a house that mostly frustrates me and start looking for a house where we can get more comfortable. And possibly paint the fucking walls something other than white. 

Anyway- that's that.

Comments

[catness.livejournal.com]

Heh. The *only* reason I rent is because I cannot afford to buy a house by myself.

Oh suck

[drwex]

That dangled promise of early Journeymanship did not follow through

I didn't know about this before. I'm sorry to learn of it. :(

have you seen this? http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/business/buy-rent-calculator.html

Re: Oh suck

[mizarchivist]

He was shot down by a key player in the decision-making, and I held out hope that there would be a change of mind, but that seems to be emphatically not true right now.

Re: Oh suck

[docorion.livejournal.com]

Neither did I; I kept looking forward to the Announcement of Journeyman.

Bite-o-rama. Who do I need to see has a painful accident the next time he visits a health care facility? You have friends too, you know.

Re: Oh suck

[mizarchivist]

d'awwwwww- thanks! It's a blow, but we'll see. I keep hoping they'll relent and push him through.

[buxom-bey.livejournal.com]

You realize I totally want your specs so I can troll for you.

[mizarchivist]

aww, thanks :)
Probably a conversation for person-time, not 1s and 0s time.

[inkedandkinked.livejournal.com]

Since I do not have a mortgage owning is good for me now. But only for that reason. Even though I am looking for a bigger piece of property (ideally a 10000 square foot warehouse with a couple of rooms) and I have checked out a few places, I would not think of buying now. As I think the market will drop further.

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

FWIW, I didn't want to own a house in State College. We were planning to be here only a few years; I wanted to rent. But we didn't have a choice. The places available to rent weren't going to be available for months. Literally months. And we had already been living in a motel for upwards of 6 weeks by the time we closed on this house. Months more in a one-room motel with no kitchen and only a mini microwave for cooking? Not on your life.

Am I glad that we bought? No. I don't feel comfortable calling this house 'ours'. We're caretakers, taking care of it for the next folks. Because I have no desire or intention to stay here permanently. That said, we do need to keep the house for at least 3 years or we'll lose that lovely $8K housing credit we got for buying at the right time. And it's not a bad place to be for now. In fact, it is perfect for our current needs in many ways.

But I look forward to having a house that I can call 'ours' and want to.

[mizarchivist]

Indeed- that town with what it is definitely not excellent for rent options. Stoopid students! I expect we should have a few options.

[dani-namaste.livejournal.com]

I will say that we lucked out with our landlord. Plenty of opportunity for gardening (although not enough light to be very effective, and the outside water is in the basement), and the walls were a different color when we moved in. Plus, I got to paint the office with approval from the landlord.

Sorry to hear about QE's work situation. It's tough for contractors right now. If he doesn't mind travel, I would be happy to ask Geoff if his team needs a talented carpenter.

[mizarchivist]

FWIW, he hasn't been actively looking for much of that time: finding out what was wrong with his back, then there was that issue of leaving for a week- you can't start a job (in that industry at least) and then be allowed to leave a few weeks later for that long. It's not good politics. Nevertheless, antsy. Thanks, though.

[dani-namaste.livejournal.com]

I can definitely understand the antsy. Being in the middle of a search myself, I totally get how crazymaking it is.

[samuraizergling.livejournal.com]

And I, of course, have a different but related problem of soon finding something tiny and cheap in that same market. Thoughts of having a place to myself have long since evaporated. Best I can do for now it keep madly raking up my pile of money and hope it'll be enough when the time comes. That and making sacrifices to whatever gods control the fates of those seeking decent roommates.

But, it's SO gonna be worth it. :)