Anonymous wrote:I have a high income and I rent. I get a better return putting my money elsewhere. Real estate is not the only form of investment.

Same here. The long-run returns on real estate are absolute garbage, even when you factor in the tax treatment; this is a well known fact that realtor dolts like to ignore. Plus, I have no desire whatsoever to spend my free time maintaining my house. I would be willing to pay a substantial premium to not own my home.

Anonymous wrote:Just curious. Especially with the cost of rent in most DC rentals hovering around 3K a month, what is the motivation for not putting that same money into your own homeownership? I'm in my 40's, & bought my first property in my 20's when I started to feel like I was throwing money away, or putting it in someone else's pocket. I have had the same renters now for a number of years, & they are essentially paying my bills. This isnt meant to be snobbish or argumentative, but just curious, especially with such high rent these days.

In return they are getting a place to live where they are off the hook for unforeseen costs. The headaches of home ownership are not everyone's cup of tea. If they are like me, they are living in an area they can't afford to buy, and so getting better amenities/neighborhood than they would otherwise.

I own but renting is definitely easier. In my rental house when something would break we'd just call the landlord problem solved.

Not to mention when I got a new job in a different area of DC I just up and moved to a different part of the train line. In a lot of cases it will be cheaper to rent an apartment that to buy a home.

OP, I'm *so* glad you asked. I AM tired of paying someone else's mortgage! Satisfied?

OP, you're ruining it for all of us who are perfectly fine having our tenants pay our mortgage for us.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Renters are also considered second class citizens in a neighborhood.

Is that so??? What neighborhood is that? I need to know never to stop foot in it.

All of them

You should not treat your home as an investment - if it works out that way, then you are lucky but too many people have significantly limited there lives by buying just to invest in property and end up unhappy.

There are a lot of good answers already, such as the high transaction costs associated with moving, thereby limiting job choices and also causing lost investment opportunities from the costs of home ownership. OP may be surprised that people pay $3K per month in rent (more in my neighborhood), but the mortgage costs in my neighborhood for the same home would be closer to $5-6K per month, so home owners are losing significant investment opportunities.

Some of us already own a home in another area/state.

Anonymous wrote:Renters are also considered second class citizens in a neighborhood.

Only by assholes.

I have always wondered this too.

Many of my friends who don't own their houses just aren't willing to buy small condos or townhouses like I did and then upgrade. They are just saving for a much larger house instead. Nothing wrong with that.

Anonymous wrote:Renters are also considered second class citizens in a neighborhood.

Is that so??? What neighborhood is that? I need to know never to stop foot in it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Duhhh....but not everyone has a downpayment or the income to own.

In my opinion, if you can pay $3k+ for rent, you can buy.

I pay close to 2, but no I can't. I live where I live because it's either that or private school. I'm a single parent with virtually no child support and I value education over saving for a downpayment.

Renters are also considered second class citizens in a neighborhood.

I am a single mom and found a house that I wanted to rent for $1800.

While I'd love to buy, I could never buy such a place (space/location) on a single salary. I'd be confined to a condo or crappy townhouse.

We rent for $2k. 2 bedroom close in.

We could probably get a loan with a 10% downpayment right now. Wouldn't be great terms. But then we'd have no emergency savings and if the water heater broke, we'd be up shit creek. So we will went for a while longer.

We rent because we feel we have to.