It is often said that part of the American Dream is owning your own home.

TBH, I do disagree because home ownership is not for everyone.

First, there are the basic financial issues like whether you can afford the payment, will you get a tax deduction, are you likely to experience appreciation of the home asset etc.

But, you also need to determine if you have the financial resources to pay other costs such as regular maintenance and repairs, insurance and utilities (often higher in a home vs apt). Also think about costs such as landscaping and yard tools..mowers etc.

There is also the liquidity issue of a home. If you are in a rental situation, generally, you are only obligated until your rental term is up. That is usually less than a year. With a home, you are hostage to the housing market and whether someone is willing to purchase your home for the value you assign. If it is worth less than you owe.. that is a problem. It's not as easy to just walk away from the home obligation.

Lifestyle is another issue. Do you have time to keep up with a yard? Will you be around to fix minor issues, or would an apt maintenance group be a better option.

I know at least in the area we're in right now... Mortgages average like $500 or less, clear down to like $100 a month... Where as renting is normally about $800+, for super strict rules... So having your own place is cheaper.

Cheaper to own than rent. Plus I like having a house that I can pick and choose how I want it to look. (as opposed to a rental).

I know of people who rent a home for like $1500-$1800 a month. I just could not imagine shelling out that much for just rent alone.

Some people can afford the home but not the maintenance or the upkeep.

Our friends bought a beautiful home. They don't have the $ to furnish all the rooms. (formal dining room and living room). Their landscaping is awful. The house could use some serious updates and decorating. But hey to each their own. Sometimes it's literally just saying you own your own home that people want.

For most people buying their house is the largest amount of money they ever spend. I think most think it through very carefully. Some may not fully realize all the costs associated with home ownership but most probably do.

My husband and I own a home, we did intend to live in it long term but life led us to move out of the area so we now rent it out. Owning a home is important to us as we both feel it is a good investment and feel more secure knowing we have somewhere to live if we need it. We bought our home as the rent we were paying at the time was the same as the mortgage would be and then we rented out a portion of the house to a friend and that covered the taxes, insurance and a little extra. Additional costs beyond that we were happy to pay as the house was large and nicer than the appartment we rented prior to that.

I've always wanted to own a home, but I'm not a handy person and don't want the responsibility for the upkeep and to fix anything that's broken. I cannot even properly manage the little tiny area in front of my condo as far as weeding and making it look nice, so I would never be able to take care of an entire yard. By the time I pay for someone else to do all of that stuff, it will probably cost more than renting.

Anyway, you don't ever really "own" your home until it's paid in full. The bank will take it away if you hit a financial hardship and can't pay your mortgage. If I took a 30 year mortgage, I'd be an old lady by the time I really owned the home, and with a 15 year, my monthly rate would be as high as rent, but with much more to deal with.

I also don't like the area I'm in, and when my youngest is old enough, I am leaving to a warmer climate whether I'm still with her dad or not. I will leave him for better weather. So I don't want to have to sell in order to leave. I know people who have been living here and not wanting to for years, because they cannot sell. And I couldn't rent it out because I'd have to manage the upkeep, which I'm not skilled enough to do. I don't even know what NEEDS to be done.

I don't understand my MIL who is 80 years old and lives in a four bathroom condo by herself. She is still paying a mortgage. She has to constantly ask for help with any and everything because she can't do things herself anymore. She has the money to pay for it, though.

I've also learned this year that I hate condos. The homeowner's association can forever come up with new rules and new charges in my state, and they do. There is nothing you can do but comply or be kicked out- and yet you are responsible for all upkeep just as if you owned it,
yet you don't own it fully (in mine the owners are only "co owners", and they don't even trim bushes for you here).

Yep, mine is a big dog neighborhood in a safe area, which is the only reason I haven't moved! Many of the neighbors have large dogs. We aren't allowed to have pits in our entire township, though. So stupid.

Oh- and if you do get kicked out for not complying with something, you can still be sued for the remainder of your mortgage!

Ours just added a $320 yearly charge due in January. Nothing you can do!

Both SO and I owned our own homes before but have since sold due to divorces.

We now rent. I do not want to own a home again. For one, the property taxes in NJ are horrendous.

We have been in the same house for 9 years with the freedom to change, paint, add on, etc. as long as we maintain the changes we make. Any repairs are reimbursed to us by the landlord. The last two years the washer and the fridge went. We gave him the option of purchasing them for us or we would purchase and keep them should we ever leave. He chose later so we now own the appliances. We have paid the same amount of rent for all these years. And we have fur babies

Also, we were in our early 40's when we got together. He feels that both his sons will not want to own in NJ and if anything happens to him the boys would be strapped with the mortgage.

I'm saving my first time home buyer's status for when we do buy a home. My dad and SO are Alps considering building a house (both are handy in that respect) and my grandfather helped build my dad's house so that's like his thing that he wants to do.

When we renno'd my uncle's house (which were currently living in) we put about 10k into it through the Home Depot project loan and the minimum payment is 150 a month (we pay 650 as "rent" that pays down the loan. It was a really easy process.

I wanted to have companion animals and not be harassed about it. I wanted to be able to paint the walls without asking for permission. I wanted lots of room for a garden. I wanted to be able to hang artwork on the walls without having to lose part of a rental deposit. And that mortgage interest deductible was a significant bonus.

I can see both sides.

Personally, I am glad I own my home. When things go wrong, I wonder sometimes if I did the right thing, but overall, I'm glad it's mine.

I can pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to someone else over my lifetime to rent THEIR property, or I can pay hundreds of thousand of dollars and the home belongs to ME. Yes, there are headaches to owning a home but there are pitfalls to renting from someone else, also.

i wish we rented right now. we own. i'd owned before, as had dh. it was fan-effing-tastic. my mortgage was not much more than rent for a two bedroom place. it sat pretty isolated, but still in city limits and close to things. it was in the fastest growing part of town and i knew would gain equity. it was a condo/townhouse, but we has NO HOA's!!!!! a landscaper mowed/blew/trimmed weekly for 35/month - if the hedges needed trimming, he'd charge extra but it was always cheaper if we could get some of the other neighbors in on it. if you had roof issues, it was on you to cover your own as long as it matched the other three units in your building. it was solid construction, but at the time i had great credit and a credit card with 0.00 balance in case the A/C, water heater, or appliances went on the fritz. i could have whatever pets i wanted to. dh moved in after we met (since he was a renter). we had a lovely back yard that was pretty dang private, the kids would go out there and play catch or throw water balloons.

then the housing market tanked. THEN he got the boys full-time. we had no choice but to move as a family of five full-sized people simply did not fit - AT ALL. plus, the changes were so much for them, dh did not want to put them into a socially isolated place, he wanted to keep them in the same schools they were in, and be able to spend time with the same friends they'd had all their lives.

we tried to find a rental in district, but they were all over $1000/m (way over budget) and NO pets (*NOT* an option). we purchased another house (a cheap foreclosure) that was in-district, had sufficient space for all of us, and was near their life-long friends, for only 100/m more than the condo. i love it here, we've been here 3 years. since the market had tanked, eveeeennnntually the condo sold at 30k less than i bought it for (we 'broke even', it was just enough to pay off the balance of my mortgage but walked away with 0.00 profit), and we depleted our savings and ran up our credit cards in the meantime due to paying dual mortgages until it sold. AAAAND dh got injured two months after we moved in. THEN our property taxes went up this past year (so our current mortgage is 200.00/month more than when we started, the ba$tards!), and will be going up again - so, under current financial burdens, YES, i DO wish we were renting.

if your health isn't all to $#!t (like dh's), you're financially stable (we are not, currently, but *were* at the time of purchase) and ready to "park it" in one place for 10 years or more, i'd highly encourage owning, especially as the market is slowly but steadily recovering.

Rent here is cheaper than owning. And our rent is $2450 a month so that’ll give you some idea of what it cost to buy house. Expensive :jawdrop:

It seems to be cultural, and a bit depending on the tax/financial incentives.

I lived in Canada until mid-30s. In both provinces where I spent a lot of time, Ontario and British Columbia, most people have a goal of owning property. In Quebec, known as the French-speaking province, most people don't care about owning. If you rent there, you often rent for 'life' and move walls etc if you like. It sounded crazy, but ok.

Then I moved to the Netherlands. Over here, it's like in Quebec. Lots of people don't care about owning, and renters are expected to put down flooring and change appliances - moving walls and plumbing is not a problem. You just have to put it back when you leave, unless the new tenant likes it and then they accept responsibility for putting it back when they leave. We own, because there is a tax incentive to buy.

Here, if you live in the property you buy, you can deduct the interest portion of your mortgage from your income. In Canada, you can only deduct the interest portion of your rental property mortgage.

Here in California, we are in a housing crisis. Foreign and domestic investors have gotten into the residential property market, and the increased demand has driven home prices sky high. At the same time, the rental market is very tight as developers stopped building during the recession so there just aren't enough rentals available to meet current demand. And don't get me started on the outrageous property taxes. Still, my mortgage is about half what it would cost to rent a home like mine.