Is renting neccessarily inferior to home ownership?

[ProgressiveModerate]

https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2023/11/28/is-it-cheaper-to-rent-or-buy-property

Read this article and it's somewhat interesting; tdlr is that basically in more parts of the Country it's become cheaper to rent. There's a pretty striking visual showing how in 2020 it was cheaper to buy in most parts of the Country including many urban areas. However, in 2023 there has been a dramatic shift towards rent being cheaper in basically 90% of the Country except a few depressed rural communities.



This got me thinking

Home ownership is often seen as a somewhat essential part of any sort of "successful" life in America. Many will say it guarantees stability, and allows one to sell their home later for such as retirement. With renting on the other hand, your rent is at the mercy of the landlord and the market and no matter how long you rent for, you will never own the apartment. Furthermore, renting is generally associated with lower classes while buying is associated with the wealthy.

But renting has benefits as well. For instance, renting generally allows more flexibility for moving around. When someone takes out a 30 year mortgage on a home, it binds them to that home. I wonder if there are any studies about the potential jobs opportunities and earnings homeowners may miss out on by being forced to stay sedentary. Renting just allows people more flexibility with life circumstances.

Additionally, here in NYC there are quite a few people I know who probably could save to buy a place if they wanted to, but instead choose to rent fairly nice apartments, because they prefer just not having to take care of their own place; many nicer rental buildings will have on-site people to fix things in the apartments as needed. They also maintain communal amenity spaces like gyms and lounges.

It’s also important to remember even once you own a place, you still must pay taxes, maintenance, and potentially HoA fees on a regular basis

Would more middle class people choosing renting over buying necessarily make people less financially stable and worse off?

[ProgressiveModerate]

It depends when you buy the home, what you want in life, and whether you can earn enough to afford to live like a King.  I mean there's nothing like the personal freedom to renovate your home or backyard as opposed to having limited space and leasing rules.  I've got two miniature golf holes b###ches.  The second one was merely to build a windmill.  My brother and his kids spend hours playing.  I got a jacuzzi, cornhole, soccer nets, and a basketball hoop.  I'm wanting to build a pickleball court to play with the family, but that's going to run me 25k.  Worth it.  My dogs have a little area to s##t so I don't have to walk them every day.  I got a garage to store a golf kart that I use to take my dog to park.  I don't have to worry about neighbors intruding on my life, but I can also hang-out with them, and rely on them to take care of my s##t when I'm away.  I have five avocado trees, and a lake to go fishing.  There's room in the house to store everything, and enough room for a home office and game room, as well as space for my GF.  It's quiet all the time unless I throw a party.  I'm close to the city without having to live around third world communities or homeless encampments.  I have privacy and control.  Options.  I can have sex with a prostitute without anyone knowing. Or I can murder a prostitute and hide her under the concrete of my basement. I like having that option. lol. 

If I were young, I'd have buy a trailer home with two bedrooms to split with my friend.  You can finance one for 120k with 10k down over a 15-year period, and your monthly payments will be around $1,100 split two-ways ($550).  And when you decide to sell it in a few years, you'll at least have enough equity to walk away with 10-15k.  You can work and go to an inexpensive community college, and then get good enough grades to back your way into a four-year school without any debt. Even if one or two of you moves out, the other roommate can assume the payments, or sublease the property $1,500, and now you have passive income that's building equity.   Basically, if you're a smart people to guide you, ownership is F-ing awesome. Most people are educated by public school teachers that funnel you into the expensive college experience, and then you come out of college without credit, savings, or work ethic.  Every single teacher I know constantly b###ch about their finances, because they're stuck renting an apartment with roommate, racking up credit card and auto debt that continues to punish them after their loan is discharged under the 10-year public employment benefit.  That's a college-educated renter's life. 

Yeah this makes sense, but it depends on the type of person you are. Some people might just want an apartment or home that's already built for and managed by someone else while others want to persue wild backyard projects and renovations. In your case you definitely seem like the latter but that's certainly not everyone - my parents for instance wouldn't like the responsibility of caring for their own home and having to fix and renovate everything.

Honestly this is part of my own contradiction - I love living in a dense walkable city like NYC but have also always desired having my own large backyard I can toy around with a bit. I'm only 18 though so I have plenty of time to toy around with both.