[ljsocal]

There are some good rent vs own calculators out there. One thing that each person has to weigh is how much they value their time. Owning a home requires a certain amount of time that renters don’t commit. Not counting the considerable time in seeking out and buying a home or the preparation and process of selling a home, there’s an enormous amount time spent on maintenance, repair, renovation, etc. I’ve owned and rented and, for me, renting is a far superior lifestyle.

[exe34]

you can pay somebody else to do all that. that's no different from renting. what's different is that when you pay off a mortgage, you're buying yourself a house. when you pay off your landlord's mortgage, you're buying him a house.

[maest]

This is oversimplifying and lazy thinking. The rent vs buy decision matters on _a lot_ more factors than what your framing includes:

- prevailing interest rates

- predicted future interest rates

- mortgage cost

- predicted house price appreciation

- predicted rent increase

- risk tolerance

- opportunity cost on passing on other investment options (e.g. stock market)

- liquidity

- how much you value your time

- how much you value the option of being able to up-and-go whenever you want

- property taxes

- property sales taxes

- and others

Seeing someone declare, with confidence, that one option is better than the other is a clear indication they've done close to no thinking about this decision.

[chrsw]

Hiring contractors to work on your house is also high cost, in money and stress.

You commonly end up paying someone a lot of money who then turns around and gets underpaid subcontractors, of dubious employment eligibility status, to do the actual work.

If you’re going through the trouble of owning a home, it makes sense to do as much work yourself as you can.