I’m a long-time fan of renting over buying. I’ve been happily renting apartments since I started living on my own around ~2006. I’ve never owned a place and don’t have any wishes or plans to. I skimmed the John Halstead post you linked to—a lot of his overall points have been motivations for me as well.
Last time I really looked into this (it’s been a few years), the price-to-rent ratio varied a lot depending on the kind of place you live in. Generally if you lived in a major city, the ratio greatly favored renters. But in some lower-populated / suburban or rural areas, the ratio favored buyers: https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2015/07/27/rent-vs-buy/ This is just one factor, but one I haven’t found many people are aware of and so I like to bring up.
I do think it’s a very personal question, and buying a home makes sense for some people. But I think it’s generally overrated, and at least in North America I see way more people mistakenly buying property than mistakenly renting. But everyone needs to think through it for themselves. Some things that might make me think someone could be a good fit for ownership are a) if they like spending a lot of time fixing/working on their home, b) they want to be a landlord, c) they really don’t like using parks/public areas and want a lot of private space, and/or d) they don’t mind a long commute.
I’m a long-time fan of renting over buying. I’ve been happily renting apartments since I started living on my own around ~2006. I’ve never owned a place and don’t have any wishes or plans to. I skimmed the John Halstead post you linked to—a lot of his overall points have been motivations for me as well.
Last time I really looked into this (it’s been a few years), the price-to-rent ratio varied a lot depending on the kind of place you live in. Generally if you lived in a major city, the ratio greatly favored renters. But in some lower-populated / suburban or rural areas, the ratio favored buyers: https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2015/07/27/rent-vs-buy/ This is just one factor, but one I haven’t found many people are aware of and so I like to bring up.
I do think it’s a very personal question, and buying a home makes sense for some people. But I think it’s generally overrated, and at least in North America I see way more people mistakenly buying property than mistakenly renting. But everyone needs to think through it for themselves. Some things that might make me think someone could be a good fit for ownership are a) if they like spending a lot of time fixing/working on their home, b) they want to be a landlord, c) they really don’t like using parks/public areas and want a lot of private space, and/or d) they don’t mind a long commute.
Buying a house protects you against rent growth, income decline and inflation, as well as bad landlords and time consuming rent hunt.