I see a lot of expensive houses being built in my area. A LOT. And the weird thing is that they’re being bought pretty quickly. Are these people just making more money than me? If so, what are they doing for a living? Or are they just living house poor? How exactly are they affording these places?

Edit: For reference, my neighborhood is starting to become popular (because the other popular neighborhoods have priced most people out of affording places there). The normal price of newer homes here is $700k. My home, built in 1965, which is 2500sq ft on a quarter acre of land, is $500k.

  • neanderthal@lemmy.world
    1·
    11 months ago

    Tell that to the home owners whose equity is wiped out when the factories were offshored or the base closed.

    The point is, there are no guarantees. Buy vs rent depends on a person’s circumstances. Buying has risks. People have lost lots of money by buying at the wrong time (like 2008) or the wrong place.

    Markets don’t always go up. Market prices can be very disconnected from reality as we have seen with many bubbles throughout the years.

    • KirbyQK@lemmy.world
      1·
      11 months ago

      My point is that we can’t say “but what about the 1%!?” and end a discussion about the value of investing in buying the place you live based on that 1 counter argument. That’s how you get republicans and rampant unregulated capitalism destroying the lives of the many to benefit the few.

      • neanderthal@lemmy.world
        1·
        11 months ago

        It was a lot more than 1% in 2008. In the US, 1% is 3 million people.

        This discussion about renting vs owning and the overall real estate market are related but not the same thing.

        My point is, owning isn’t always the best option, it has risks that vary depending on location, it isn’t always the best financial moving.

        Always and never are rarely true. As I said in another comment, the ideal situation is a variety of housing options available for buying or renting.

        Back in 2007, I was working on a contract that could have had me moving on short notice, in a housing bubble. Buying would have been insane in that market and I would have lost a few hundred k. Even if it wasn’t a bubble, buying would have put me in a worse situation than renting due to transaction costs, interest, insurance, taxes, and opportunity costs. I own now.