How important to you..

How important to you is it that you own a house?

I know its the "American Dream" but is anyone happy renting?

There is a lot of discussion going on between DH and I and in a way we would love our own home....but again who wants to deal with the maintanence. We love to stay busy on the weekends and cutting the lawn or weeding isn't top priority.

Just wondering where everyone stands.

Re: How important to you..

For us it was important. We've lived in our home for a little over a year now. DH loves doing the lawn, he takes pride in it. We love it, we think it is worth the work, to have something that is yours, to do whatever you want with. The only thing that gets frustrating sometimes is when unexpected things go wrong-like the oil burner going, ect. It depends on the person though. It is not for everyone, but I know it is for us. Hope that helps.

Re: How important to you..

For me, it was the end-all-be-all. Had to be done, no matter what it took.

DH grew up in an apartment in the city and would have been fine with a co-op or condo.

As far as maintenance, I don't care if something breaks down or I need to call a repair man and pay money unexpectedly - it's a trade off to me.

I also love gardening and decorating and entertaining.

Home ownership is not something that everyone desires, and that's fine.. some people rather have more disposable income, and I don't blame them.

Re: How important to you..

It's VERY important to myself and DH that we own our home one day (hopefully in the near future)
We both grew up bouncing from home to home b/c our parents couldn't afford to buy one themselves, both for different reasons.
Thinking about the amount of times i've moved and changed schools makes my stomach turn but its what my parents had to do since we didnt have any money.
I want my kids to grow up in a nice home, have a nice yard, their own rooms etc.
Sounds silly but I want my children, later down the road, to talk about their "childhood home" and not have to reference a house by the name of the street since it was never really "home"

That's my reason

Re: How important to you..

To me, yes it was important to own our home.

I have a friend that did own her home and went through a terrible divorce. She said she would rather rent a home from now on. Owning is not for everyone and I can understand that.

Re: How important to you..

The main reasons we own a house:

- We don't have to deal with a landlord
- We have pets
- We have a "LOUD" child
- We have a yard
- Privacy
- We can do whatever we want to do with our house

I lived most of my life in an apartment. I am no longer willing to live in an apartment (unless a gigantic condo in NYC!!!). So I would have to live in a house. I don't want to share it with anyone else upstairs or downstairs. BTDT!!!! I am not against renting at all IF it make sense financially. For what we want, where we want to live, our lifestyle, buying makes more sense than renting and for the price it would be to rent a house, we might as well buy it.

Re: How important to you..

It was very important to me and my dh. We lived in the city as renters for years (both separately and then together and then as a married couple), but we had always planned to eventually own a home.

For us, it was mainly a lifestyle consideration. We like to entertain, we enjoy our yard, we wanted to have space to raise our son (we bought when I was pregnant). We are both real estate junkies, so we couldn't wait to buy!

Also, we were paying rent that amounted to more than our mortgage payment, and that money was just gone every month. At least in a home, you are building equity (if you plan to stay long term).

But I do not think home ownership is right for everyone. I think it depends on personal preferences and what stage of life you are in. For us, renting was great when we did it, and at that time, we would not have wanted to commit to ownership in the city for a variety of reasons (and we weren't yet ready to move back to LI). Like with anything else in life, there are pros and cons to owning and renting.

Message edited 3/22/2011 11:00:17 PM.

Re: How important to you..

i agree, which is one of the reasons we bought a co-op. When we sell and move, its to a townhouse, never a single family home. We do not want to spend our weekends doing yard work.

Re: How important to you..

Im married to a fiscal conservative and am becoming one myself. At our age (and the age we bought our home) it was high time we stopped pizzing away money on rent and owned a home to build equity and have something to show for our years in the workforce. We had a child and one on the way when we bought and we felt the need to plant roots and establish ourselves in a neighborhood and school district where our kids would be going to school. We would have done it sooner if we were abel to.

So it is VERY important to us to own a home.

Re: How important to you..

when we rented, we felt like we were waisting money. we wanted a house in the worst way so we bought a condo.

now, three years later - i kind of wish we had rented a little bit longer, saved more $$ and purchased our dream home.

dont get me wrong, the condo was a fantastic stepping stone and it worked out well for us because our dream home is about $150k cheaper then it would have been 3 years ago BUT, sometimes i think maybe we could have avoided the whole condo scenerio altogether.

it is important to us, yes.

Re: How important to you..

Like you, we like our weekends free which is why we bought a condo.... So we get to own, but only have to do work inside the house... and that is rare... knock on wood! I actually enjoy the gardening aspect... so thats the only outside work that I will do... Our landscaping crew comes by once a week to mow, blow leaves... and even shovels our pathway right to our door when it snows... doesnt get better than that

Honestly, I couldnt give one more dime to our old landlords... Seeing our money every month go to fixing up their house, them buying flat screens tvs, etc.. was horrible... Now our money comes back to us and its wonderful! I wouldnt have it any other way now...

If we should move again in the future, we will be springing for a bigger condo... we dont have plans to ever live the house lifestyle... just not us... I like being able to use the developments pool without having to actually take care of it

Message edited 3/23/2011 8:50:23 AM.

Re: How important to you..

now that i own a house i think we should of waited. Our apartment was not right for us (i mean the size was great) but no backyard we needed a yard.

Re: How important to you..

DH and I go back and forth on this a lot also. We can both see the ups and the downs of renting and owning.
One of the biggest arguments that I hear for owning vs renting is that you are wasting your money. That arguement does not work for me, because even after you have paid for your home, there is a high yearly fee to live in the home you own - RE taxes.
In some areas of LI, RE taxes can be as much as I pay a year in rent.
We enjoy that if anything breaks, it is not our problem. The biggest drawback for us is that we do not have a yard. I would really like a yard where I could garden, but for now, I container garden on my deck and that works.

We both work 6 days a week out side of our home and I have a home based business that I tend to when I am home. We see our friends/family who spend all of their down time mowing/weeding/painting/repairing, while we are able to go and enjoy doing things together.
Everyone has their reason for doing things. Right now, home ownership just is not for us.

Having said all that, we hope to be buying a home with my mother this year. We have already laid out, who we will hire people for (landscaper/cleaning lady, etc) and that mom will be the homeowner and we will be the renters.

Re: How important to you..

I was pretty happy renting.

I wanted a house because it was 'the thing to do' and it seemed kind of like the next step in being a grown up. But I remember thinking I would have been okay if I continued to rent.

BUT.. now that I own? It's just different. I can't tell you the satisfaction I get from knowing this home is mine. I honestly sometimes get teary when I realize that I have been so blessed.

We are tearing down our kitchen and re-doing it to my specs.. something I couldn't do if we rented. We have camp-outs in the backyards - something I might not be able to do renting.

It's a responsibility and it's costly.. but it's worth it to me. And I honestly don't think I could ever go back to renting and be completely happy about it.

Re: How important to you..

It was very important to us... maybe more me. I moved out on my own and bout a co-op, then before DH and I got engaged I bought our house and sold it. The co-op was a great step even though it was noisy sometimes and I didn't have my own yard, washer, dryer, privacy. getting into a house was important to me at the point. Knowing i we were heading in the marriage and family direction, I wanted our own private home for our family with a yard and plenty of room... room to have holidays and BBq's with our families, etc. and something to call OURS!

Re: How important to you..

I loved my apartment. There are pros and cons to renting and buying so I think it depends on you and your needs. You can always continue to rent and save $ until both of you are ready to buy. I think a condo gives you the best of both worlds so that can be an option too.

Message edited 3/23/2011 11:03:31 AM.

Re: How important to you..

Very important for us.

Re: How important to you..

It was very important to us. We wanted to own something and build equity and work on a home knowing that the improvements we made were adding to my investment.

We also have a lot of work still to do (it's been two years) and we have a lot of weekend plans but we always find a balance. As our neighbor reminds us, "Rome wasn't built in a day," so we may be improving the home and yard more slowly than we originally anticipated, but we still enjoy our weekends without feeling obligated to the house.

We do have a small home and yard though, so it's easier to maintain the basics - we just have a long list of projects ahead.

Re: How important to you..

Important but not UBER important. We've found a happy medium - we own a two-family home with my mother. So yes, I can say I own a home, but the financial burden is only half as much for us.

Re: How important to you..

We currently rent. It is extremely important for me to own a home one day. But I want it to be the right home, at the right price and at the right time. So I am happy renting until that time comes.
I tell DH all the time that I would rather rent for another year or two then settle on something. For us it'll likely be a lifetime investment.

Re: How important to you..

Re: How important to you..

Re: How important to you..

Re: How important to you..

We were very happy renting. And financially I'm not one of those ppl that believe we were "throwing money away". I've also read plenty of research that states a house is not an investment that yields a great return (financially). That being said, DH and I decided to buy a home b/c we felt it was important for our future children. And we both really enjoy the stability and security that comes with owing our own home.

Re: How important to you..

Very important to me. We are also very busy, active but enjoy taking time out to maintain our home.