People who don’t own homes, what’s your plan?

27 comments

1. Saving and waiting for a miracle to lower prices a bit. Buying now is not an option I guess

2. I got £50k saved as a deposit. I save roughly £1k a month. I currently cannot afford a house in a decent area, i.e. non ex council estate, I’ve been priced out of the market over the past 12 months. Interest rates now mean that I can’t borrow enough to secure a 3 bed property anywhere locally. So unless our useless government tackles the housing shortage in the UK, people earning decent money won’t be able to get on the housing ladder either

3. This is my in-laws. Mid 70s and renting. I helped them with a down payment for a home once and they walked away from it. I don’t know what their plan is for retirement, but they won’t be moving in with me.

   Edit for clarity: they bought the house with my help. They then stopped making payments and walked away from it.

4. Hoping I can aford to pay the death taxes and inherit my parent’s place after they die maybe.

5. This is a great question OP and always wondered what others had planned.

6. I am seeing a lot of my parents friends in retirement age, selling their homes in nice coastal areas, and moving to places like Vegas because they can’t afford to buy something else in the same area. It’s kind of an interesting thing to watch because I’ve always been told that owning a home is security for retirement, but it’s not playing out that way for many of these people. I’ve owned homes before, and felt that financial pinch of pouring everything into one asset, feeling stuck, and I hated it. So I guess for me, my plan is to live a simpler life being content renting in areas I actually want to live, and investing smartly in diverse ways. I want to retire someday in a nice area, and I don’t want home prices to dictate where I go because owning is just not that important to me, *where* I live, is.

7. Rent and invest. I have no interest in owning a home.

8. I can’t even afford a grave, so I guess I’ll just keep paying taxes for now.

9. Keep saving so that i might afford a shed by the time im 60..

10. I’m saving until I’m married, then hopefully my future wife will have help with the savings to a new home

11. I’m broke!

12. Just renting and airbnbs for now while I travel around and work remotely. Planning to be a multimillionaire in a few years so maybe then I’ll get myself a condo in Manhattan.

13. Probably rent forever I’m not liabile for anything but I can buy a vending machine for cheap

14. tl;dr I used to own my home and I still plan to again, but hopefully at prices better than today’s conditions.

    I owned in Michigan starting in 2009. Moved to an Arizona apartment in 2019. Intended to be as short and temporary at possible until finding work. Sold my Michigan house in Jan/Feb 2020 while still job hunting. It was paid off free and clear, but it was a fixer upper in a relatively lcol area. So there’s some cash on hand but it’s nowhere near enough for a house anymore and especially in my new locale.

    OOPS.

    I’ve started jobs twice now since Nov 2020, and currently in the greatest job of my lifetime so far. But holy crap I’m notn excited about paying these prices just to get back into a single family home.

    Seems like market is cooling so I’m still waiting to purchase again, despite how much I despise renting and having to hear my neighbors. But I fully intend to buy again, eventually, and to aggressively pay it off. AGAIN.

15. Am 40, want to own. Can’t afford it. A house big enough for 4 people would be more than half a million dollars and that’s way outside of a big city.

    So I’ll try and save my money and hope prices come down.

16. Wait for the next crash

17. Hope.

    I even have a great job and save like crazy, and it’s still looking increasingly unlikely.

18. According to the *Rich Dad, Poor Dad* books, “No one ever retired because their property value went up”.

    Personal home ownership is not an income-generating asset, so it’s not a necessary component of an investment portfolio. If anything I find it more of a pain, because the upfront expenses and the responsibility can actually impede the ability to take advantage of other investment or career opportunities.

    For example, putting the money that would be used for a down payment into index funds gives a person similar returns, and the return is much more liquid.

    Additionally, renting gives a person much more flexibility to relocate on short notice for better job opportunities (I have utilized this advantage of renting multiple times in my life).

    To be fair, I do see concrete advantages to home ownership in two specific scenarios: having a paid off house during retirement drastically reduces living expenses, and having rental properties essentially gives homeowners an appreciating asset that someone else pays for.

    But of course the vast majority of people do not ever pay off their homes, and while it’s not impossible it’s unlikely a person can accumulate a large portfolio of rental properties before gaining the reasonable ability to pay off their first property.

    For myself, recently I began putting approximately 25% of my annual income into liquid investments with historically handsome returns. I’m perfectly happy to eventually become cash-rich while remaining asset-poor. Because the harder it is to convert assets to cash, the less they matter anyway. Cash is king.

    Other than that my plan is to stay in the gym four times a week so I don’t ever get sick and have to retire. Wish me luck on that one guys!

19. I’m holding out for my best options of either the total collapse of our society or Amazon finishing up their company towns so I can live, laugh love in one of their one room tin shacks without running water ( water will be extra and only those working over 90 hours a week can afford it).

20. Travel, live in interesting places for way cheaper (and much more interesting culture) than the US. I love Mexico so I’ll probably end up there. Although parts of Europe, Philippines and Vietnam are also super cheap.

21. First step is to know for sure where my pregnant wife and I will be in 5 years. Second step is to keep saving money.

22. My mom will help me w a down payment in nyc when my fiancé and I are done renting

    Frankly I don’t know how millennials afford homes without help from rents. It’s pretty fucked esp in hcol areas

23. I’m saving up for a bundle of rope and a 3-legged chair right now

24. the most important thing is you live in a place where you can do the HCOL->LCOL game. then you can afford to rent for your whole working life

    if you could not, then you either really should try hard buying or gtfo (like me).

    the more interesting question would be, for those who plan to stay single for your whole life, whats your game plan?

25. In the UK were lucky enough to have council houses. As long as you keep up with the rent (don’t cause trouble & look after the property) you can live there as long as you like.

26. If makes since to buy home then I’ll buy one but till then I happy to live as renter. People think home ownership is crucial for personhood. Like a good retirement plan is more important than owning a house.

27. Tents aren’t looking to bad nowadays…