• UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      What @gaiussabinus said.

      But the math of it is two-fold. Firstly - unless you’re deeply in the know - you’re always going to do better putting money into an ETF than real estate. Especially true since COVID, when the market’s been doing 20-30% annually. Secondly - the real financial benefit of home ownership is the locked-in mortgage rate, with some knock-on benefits when you make capital improvements that pay off against utilities or transportation costs long term.

      The cost of flipping a home is enormous - easily 3-6% of the house’s sell-value - so the people who benefit the most from turnover tend to be the real estate agents not the homeowners. And the risk that you’ve bought into a flat or deflating housing market far outweighs the anticipated returns from short term housing flips (unless, again, you’re already a real estate agent who can eat the administrative cost of title transfers).

      As a general rule, you want to buy a house with a mortgage note you can afford, keep it in good repair to minimize utilities, and then simply enjoy the fact that you don’t have a landlord threatening to raise your rents every year. Minimizing future outlays, not speculating on the future value, makes owning a home an attractive financial decision.

    • gaiussabinus@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Loses value, maintenance, tax burden, regulatory over sight. It is a liability and always pencil it in as a liability. Only the land holds value. If you don’t live in it, its not worth it.

      • PhoenixDog@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        I mean, if I put hundreds of thousands into my home over the course of 20+ years I expect the value of my home to be more than what I bought it for.

        The problem is when people just buy homes, barely upgrade any of it, and expect to double what they paid for it.

        The homestead we have now u bought for $225,000 about 5 years ago. We just built a new deck extension on it. I should expect to get more than what I paid for since we have put money into this home. It’s not worth what it was 5 years ago as it’s since been updated both inside and out over those five years.

        • Sam_Bass@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          bought mine for $150k around the same time period, and added a carport to it the second year that increased the value to $189k. each year since it has increased a bit to be today worth $220k which is in line with values of other properties in this area. not a huge amount, true, but i am not here for the roi. this is my home that i will be dying in one day

          • PhoenixDog@lemmy.world
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            3 days ago

            Yup. Someone could offer us $1 million for our property and we’d turn it down.

            We’re never leaving where we are. 14 acres on a rural dirt road and essentially one neighbour