I never understood why Americans are so riled up about real estate, is buying a home seen as a sign of success? Is buying a house an investment as some like to say?
Also, what’s up with the obsession with interconnecting DIY culture and home ownership? For example in my culture, don’t matter if you own a house or not, if you could take care of business, you would be able take on whatever repair and maintenance tasks as it is
But that’s a little side-tracking, anyhow, real talk what is the obsession a lot of Americans have with buying a house? I am still seriously trying to get a hold of how they get so worked up over it
29 comments
It’s a sign of independence, not having to rely off someone else for housing and being able to do whatever you want with it.
Home ownership is a status symbol and accomplishment – you saved enough money to purchase your own little castle.
Also, it’s an investment into your future. Our retirement system isn’t great unless you contribute to it heavily throughout your lifetime. Most elderly people don’t have enough saved and live in poverty; the government will not fully take care of you, even if you’re homeless.
It’s still a widely held belief that selling your home at retirement will circumvent any pitfalls you had with saving for retirement. You’re basically standing on a small fortune at that point (in my area, hopefully a minimum of $700k+).
When you buy a home and finish paying off your mortgage, you know longer have monthly payments like rent and stuff (you still have property taxes) and you actually own your house. It’s a large investment that takes a considerable amount of capital and hard work to get, so it is seen as an accomplishment by many people.
Factoring in the DIY aspects, when you’re renting, many landlords/agencies don’t let you do any work or modifications on your place. When I lived in MD, my landlord wouldn’t even let us change the filters on the AC. Forget about painting a wall or installing new carpet. When you own a house you can do all the little projects and add any personal touches you want.
If you can pay off your mortgage before retirement, you have a place to live, without paying rent, just property taxes and maintenance.
You have a valuable asset to pass on to your kids when you die.
You can borrow against it.
If you need to move to an assisted living facility when you are elderly, you can sell your house to pay for it.
You are talking about doing repairs and improvements on a property you are renting, which is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard of. Why in hell would I spend my money and labor improving someone else’s property? The only advantage of renting is that you don’t have to pay for maintenance and repairs unless you damage the house through negligence. If you are doing repairs on a rental, without a rent reduction to compensate you, you are being exploited by your landlord.
First and foremost, renting sucks. It’s perpetual. Can you imagine buying a car and never paying it off, ever? Just paying until you die? That’s renting. Financially it isn’t smart for most people in the long run. Sure you don’t have to worry about repairs and whatnot but you also have very little control over customization and the financial security of homeownership.
You only have to pay on a home until you’ve paid off the mortgage. And if you’re smart, no matter how many times you move that cost won’t change much (for example, paying off your house, selling it and moving into a new one paying with the old house money could mean a new house with no mortgage.)
Secondly, real estate is probably one of the best investments you can make in terms of financial security. It almost always appreciates.
As far as DIYing goes… some people just take pride in sweat equity and the home is one of the easiest things you own that you can modify. You can’t do everything yourself, especially since things have to be up to code, but you don’t necessarily have to be a rocket scientist either to replace a vanity and repaint. Sure you can pay to have someone do it, but if you did it… there’s a certain feeling that comes with that.
Our economic system is built around home ownership being the primary means of long-term wealth gain. It has been that way since at least the Great Depression when mass homelessness shocked the country and the government began getting very involved in the mortgage markets. Our homes are often our pensions. They’re also a secure place to store wealth since many states exempt one’s primary home from being taken in bankruptcy proceedings.
One of the great economic crimes of segregation was that it locked nearly all Black families out of this form of wealth building, something that haunts their descendants to this day. Think of how many folks get at least a small inheritance from selling their parents’ home. Then compound those gains over generations.
I ask myself this too, this is one thing I don’t agree with my fellow Americans. It’s wasteful and makes cities uglier and less functional. It’s why we have such an urban sprawl problem. And honestly it just inst worth it a lot of times
You’ve been living here for a decade and you can’t figure it out? You’ve never asked this before to your native colleagues or friends? Do you not read or listen to the news?
Well if you haven’t, rents have been skyrocketing across the country, even in lower COL areas (ie the Midwest). Even with tons of new construction/rennovations of apartments. However, these tend to be “luxury apartments” and command higher or ridiculous prices. For example, $1700 for a 1bdr here in Kansas City. Yes, coastal friends, that’s high here because our salaries here are not as high as the coasts. I’ve even seen that price for studios here.
According to this April 2022 article from the [KC Star newspaper](https://archive.ph/K2gUh), median rents in the area increased 11% from 2021 to 2022. Nationally:
> Rent for two-bedroom apartments increased to $2,028 nationally, $286 more than it cost at this point last year. One-bedroom units also went up to $1,659, a 16.3% increase from March 2021. Studio units average $1,483 nationally, a nearly 17% increase from last year.
Those are large increases in rent. Most people don’t get yearly wage increases of 17%. I got an increase of 5% earlier this year and that’s considered pretty good. Not even going to talk about inflation.
So with that in mind, let’s talk about owning a house. If I buy a house and the mortgage is $2,208/mo, it’s not going to go up. I’m locked in. For 15, 20, or 30yrs. Property taxes may increase, but that’s separate.
Now also imaging you’re nearing retirement age. Do you want to live in a rental unit where rents are going to increase 17% year, while you’re on a fixed income (401k, pension, and/or Social Security)? Or would you rather live in a house; ideally one you’ve already completely paid off, where you only need to worry about property tax? I’m leaving out maintenance and upkeep costs, but those are not guaranteed in the way that rental increases seem to be these days.
There’s certainly some prestige for owning a house. But it goes beyond simply wanting to achieve the “American Dream.” There are real benefits to owning vs renting. Renting has its own benefits, too. I rent, but I don’t want to do this forever.
House or apartment, which would you rather live in?
Its an asset and having a landlord can suck.
Imagine living in an apartment and at any given time someone can tell you that you have to leave at the end of the month. Also you pay tons of money so someone else can own the place where you live.
You’re paying your own mortgage and building your own equity for yourself instead of a total stranger. A home is very likely to be the average American’s largest asset.
I see that we’ve come to the shuffle card level of owning a house.
At least when you buy you’re putting money into something you’ll own. Renting is a waste of money.
Owning a home is part of the American dream. It’s seen as a sign of success and independence. And, assuming you plan on staying in one place for long enough, it’s a smart financial decision.
We have bought and sold multiple houses over the years and made more money doing that then we did working (ex-IT here and wife is an occupational therapist). Plus it’s yours, and you can do what you want with it. Just sold a house we bought in 2007, put over 120K into, and doubled ALL the money we put it. Rent for that time period would have been probably $450,000 for a comparable home in the same area. Might as well flush a half a million down the toilet. What’s the sense in that?
“Obsession” sounds negative and judgey.
I wouldn’t say everyone has the same interests or goals in a nation of 330 mil plus people, from all over the globe.
This seems like a troll post especially since a throwaway (edit: 346 karma, ‘interesting’ history) account is posting it. (I’ll try anyway.)
Why *wouldn’t* you want an end to renting and all that comes with that. And no, landlords mostly do not allow people to just do what they want. The landlord chooses who repairs things, and when. And there’s no guarantee they will even repair things, or do it properly.
What do you mean by “riled up” and “worked up” — did you witness people running in circles tearing their hair out and shrieking “I must own a house today or I will dieeee?”
Pretty sure wanting one’s own home is fairly universal, not an “American obsession.”
What’s with you obsession of wanting to pay for someone else’s real estate?
I know we’re not supposed to harp on that word, but damn. Euro’s desire to toss it around whenever someone does something differently than they personally do simply astounds me. “This is different than my way, must be mentalninstability”
[Klaus Schwab, is that you?](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/youll-own-nothing-and-be-happy)
For me it is the freedom. The place is mine (mortgage will be gone by the end of 2023) so no matter what happens, I have a place to live. It can’t be sold out from under me. The cost of living here will not change. I can do what I want with it, if I don’t like something or it breaks, I can replace it with whatever I want.
Some of us are descended from people who had to move here because of land clearances. Landowners turning people out because of….sheep or whatever. Owning your own place means that kind of thing doesn’t happen. I know, it was a long time ago, but it’s become a cultural norm.
>For example in my culture, don’t matter if you own a house or not, if you could take care of business, you would be able take on whatever repair and maintenance tasks as it is
What happens after the renter pays out of their own pocket for a repair or upgrades and then the landlord tells them they cannot live there anymore
If I pay $1,000/mo in rent for 30 years, that’s $360,000 that I’ve handed to someone else and will never see again. If I put that into a mortgage payment, I can recoup *all of it* plus whatever value changes have occurred in that time, which in 30 years should be a doubling or tripling or more under normal circumstances.
You have a mortgage payment that stays the same, unlike rent that can constantly go up. Once you pay off the mortgage, you no longer have a monthly payment; if you rent you have to pay forever. You can also do generally whatever you want with your own property, unlike if you were renting.
Also, the property going up in value for much more than you originally paid for it can be extremely beneficial if you plan on selling it someday.
Also, why would you do repairs yourself if you’re renting? What’s the benefitting of renting over owning at that point?
It is American dream to own their own home. It is also good investment. Renting is less obligation but you are also paying more per month than the mortgage would be. You basically buying the house for someone else.
Because it’s one of the best ways to get ahead financially, if you are smart about it. Rent prices go up all of the time but my mortgage stays reasonable. We will have a paid off house for retirement.
I’m from the UK, and I know this a thread for asking Americans, but I would say the desire (not ‘obsession’) to own your own home is pretty much the same here in the UK. My wife and I rented for our first five years – it is money down the drain. Some European countries have a different system, with very tight rent-control and laws against eviction (even guaranteed tenancy etc), so I can understand why it is more common under those conditions.
Once we could finally afford a deposit on a house (we literally lived in effective penury in order to save for the deposit), we bought one – and the monthly mortgage payment (fixed for 5 years, which provides security) was then less than the rent we had been paying!
Many younger people in the UK are trapped in that cycle – paying high rents, which prevents them from saving-up the deposit required to secure a mortgage. And it is a vicious cycle, since the more people who buy-up houses to rent-out, the lower the available housing-stock and so the higher the prices and the required deposit.
If you are renting, you are paying into your landlord’s pension; if you own your own home, you are securing your own (because by the time you retire, you will not have any mortgage or rent payments, plus you have a major asset either to leave to your children or to equity release against later life care needs etc).
So I wouldn’t call it an obsession, but a highly logical and pragmatic desire.
Home ownership isn’t just limited to the US. In many countries, property ownership is an aspiration.
In the US, your alternatives are renting and owning. If you rent, the amount that you pay goes up every year. None of that amount stays with you. You also don’t have to worry about maintenance.
If you buy, your mortgage stays the same. Over 15 or 30 years. You also get to reduce your taxes a bit by mortgage interest deduction. You build equity in your property, but you are required to take care of it.
It’s just a smarter economic decision in the long run to own. It’s probably one of the best financial decisions a person can make.