[pepinator]

This is obviously not true. You don't have to do the math to realize: when you pay rent, every moth, an important part of your salary simply disappears, leaving nothing for the future. When you pay a mortgage, your paying the house you'll own. Of course, there are interests and fees and whatnot, but you'd need to pay huge amounts so that it becomes unviable; I can't imagine a single scenario where that occurs.

[Swizec]

> This is obviously not true. You don't have to do the math to realize [rent is throwing money away]

This greatly depends on your specific numbers.

We did the math with my partner: our current rent is 5k/mo. Our mortgage for the same place bought when we moved in would be 9k/mo + transaction cost + maintenance. It will take our rent almost 10 years to catch up to the cost of a mortgage. Max increases are capped in California.

Over those 10 years, investing the delta in index funds puts us about 200k ahead of buying in terms of net worth. We’re also not handcuffed by a mortgage for 30 years which gives us optionality.

Not buying has let us build about 700k net worth debt free in the last 10 years we’ve been together. We’ve also moved 3 times with essentially zero transaction cost. I think that’s fine

[hintklb]

you definitely came ahead by not buying and you did the math. Good for you!

Generally, this holds true today for most HCOL and MCOL areas. It is still a good idea to buy in a few LCOL areas.

What I have seen is that in high-earner areas (Bay area for example) buying completely outpaces renting in cost (buy to rent ratio_. Mainly because the pool of buyers outbid each other. This is mainly due to the narrative and social pressure to buy at all cost. Similarly, renting stays relatively low as people do not compete as much.

[globular-toast]

With those kind of numbers it doesn't really matter what you do, you'll still come out ahead.

1. Be rich,

2. Don't be poor.

[lesuorac]

In the majority of markets an individual that invested the down payment into the SPY500 as opposed to a house comes out a head. Especially if you sell the house on average every 7 years ...

Just do the math yourself; it's pretty easy [1] [2] [3] [4].

That said, not every decision in life needs to be profit maximization. You can enjoy owning a house.

[1]: https://research-tools.pwlcapital.com/research/rent-vs-buy

[2]: https://www.nerdwallet.com/calculator/rent-vs-buy-calculator

[3]: https://www.zillow.com/rent-vs-buy-calculator

[4]: https://www.calculator.net/rent-vs-buy-calculator.html

[ternaryoperator]

This doesn't take into account that you need to live somewhere.

If you spend $2K on rent (which gets no return) and put $1K into the SPY500 every month or put all $3K into your house, you will be far, far ahead with real estate.

[bluecalm]

You seem to be completely clueless about the issue. There are many resources to learn about it. One very good one is Ben Felix on YouTube. Search for his owning vs renting videos and spend some time trying to understand the analysis. It will be a bit difficult when you come from "rent is money disappearing" mindset but it will be worth it.

[hintklb]

if you buy a house today, you are literally paying a "huge amounts so that it becomes unviable". Check the concept of opportunity cost.

[esseph]

The problem is you still have to live somewhere, and buying is a real asset.

I would like to take the Opportunity to not pay a fucking landlord, thanks.