alt Hacker NewsBut renting has no property taxes or maintenance costs and should cost a lot less, meaning you can take the money that would have gone to those other things and invest it to earn returns on it.
I pay 600/mo in rent, so 7200 a year. A basic house around me would easily be about 7200 in property tax + average annual maintenance costs + increased utility costs + increased insurance.
So how am I losing out on anything unless you think that a house value (minus loan rate) would appreciate more than I can earn with that money instead invested in the stock market or some other real-estate investment deal like multi-family units.
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> But renting has no property taxes or maintenance costs
More accurately, renting has no separate line items for property taxes or maintenance (or insurance or HOA if applicable). But of course the renter is paying for all of that.
> and should cost a lot less
More, not less. Since the renter is paying for all the costs, plus some profit for the owner.
I guess it depends somewhat on where you live and what interest rates are doing when you buy. Where I live (and true of virtually everywhere else I've lived over the last 20+ years), monthly rent significantly exceeds what the monthly mortgage repayment would be for the property if bought. Rental prices also seem to increase in lock step with or even above house price increases. So as the underlying asset appreciates (benefitting the landlord), rental prices also go up, further compounding the "loss" of not owning. This is before we talk about the possibility of using the gains in your property's value as collateral, something obviously not available to renters (or the advantage of locking in a <3.5% 20+ year loan; or the tax advantages on capital gains from property versus stocks). Also, might be different in the US, but in the UK the tenant normally pays the annual taxes.