mortgage

[sunflower68]

Home owners are you worried for the future?
I am kind of glad at the moment that we rent; I would be paying twice what I do now if I bought a home like mine.

I know, I know, homeowners call rent "dead money" but it puts a roof over our heads every month - hardly dead.

What I can't get over is how homeowners on a regular salary afford some of the houses I see - where do they find the cash each month?

If it is on credit, that really is scarey.

[leelapops]

Hi sunflower, good question!

We "only" rent too, and I am happy to rent forever: not dead money as far as I am concerned. Provides a lot more flexibility, and is a damn sight cheaper month-to-month than a mortgage, even if I don't get to keep the house at the end of it!

We have looked into it, and the mortgage we would get would barely buy a shoebox!

Happy to rent :) x

[meglet]

Renting property is the norm in some other countries in Europe but I'm glad I own. Then I will have something of value to leave to any children I may have, as my parents will for me and theirs did before them.

[Louisa 69]

I rent also and i have no problems about it. If anything goes wrong with the boiler or roof then you don't have costly repair bills. Also if you loose your job, you get your rent paid for you so you don't end up loosing your home also.

[gallapunk]

Pros and cons either way. I've rented for the past few years and I feel like it's dead money because it's not going to be mine at the end of it. I owned before and then I left him and eventually got divorced (2 years he tried to drag it out; but I guess I'm lucky, because it could have been longer if I hadn't kept on top of it) and then the money we made from selling the house (when they eventually evicted him) paid off all my marital debts. Now I'm free and I have quite a lot in savings, which is profits from the house sale.

In all the years I owned my own home, paying a mortgage was cheaper than paying rent, but I appreciate that just lately it's changed. Also, because rent goes up in line with inflation, then I guess if you bought a house 10 years ago for �45,000 and it's now worth �180,000, but you're still only paying �200 per month for the mortgage, you're OK compared to someone who's been renting all those years and the rent has just gone up and up in line with the value of the house in current times.

[snow.maiden]

I don't think it matters either way, so long as your house is a home. Nothing beats walking into a happy atmosphere, whether you rent or have a mortgage - x

[EngTeach]

I only own my home b/c a number of years ago my mother and I bought out my father's share. She lived there after their divorce and he wanted to retire, so we bought his half. Therefore we have what I call a 1/2 mortgage. I would never be able to, on one salary, afford my home. It is certainly no palace, but it is in a still decent area and is a 2 family so I have a rental income.

NYC (outside Manhattan) is ridiculously expensive. Even with the dip in the housing market, I could sell, pay off mymortgage and move to the suburbs and be mortgage free.

I sometimes long for the carefree renter way. Like today when i discovered water in the basement, but do like owning. It makes me feel "grown-up".