Like most of DC, the neighborhood is gentrifying. That was the big change. The house was listed at 499K, shown over one weekend, and the rest was a lots of above-asking offers.

The reason why Case-Shiller index shows DC differently is because they have a really stupid definition of 'DC Area'. They even consider some West Virginia counties and rural Maryland as 'DC Area'.

Like I said, you may or may not win big on a house purchase. You probably won't considering the transaction costs on the buy and sell side. But at least you won't piss away tons of rent money over the years and it is highly unlikely you will lose big. If you have a steady career and expect to be in some area for a couple of years, buying is the way to go unless you live in some ghetto or super-depressed, economically stagnant and questionable area (like coal towns, Vegas)

If you want to win, you gotta be in the game.

So basically you took a risk in an up and coming neighborhood in DC and it paid off? I don't think this thread was focused on rent vs buy in improving neighborhoods but more in established areas.

The next issue you have because rising tide lifts all boats - what did that gain get you if you stay in the DC area and don't move to Kansas. You don't really have a gain if you just buy another house to live in for the same or higher value. You are just swapping places to live.

home ownership has been an integral part of the "American Dream" for a very long time.

The misguided obsession has been reinforced by popular culture (see sitcoms) and government policy (lol Freddy/Fannie and piles of other legislations)

I did the NYT survey that was linked and for my situation buying our house was a good decision as long as we live there at least 3.5 years. Uhm, Ok. Easy.

From payment #1, more went to our principal than interest. The fact that we qualified for a sub 4% interest rate on one income (she hadn't found a job yet at that time) is pretty LOL to me but ship the recession I guess.

Also...wtf at .5% of purchase price for annual homeowners insurance? Ours is ~.15%

Real estate is how most people build WEALTH in this country....not just getting filthy rich, but wealthy and there is a difference.

Just because we hit the biggest pooper of a market in our lifetimes does not mean that will ever change, in fact savvy investors are going to be making tons off of what we just went though over the next 10+ years.

Families have a chance to cash in on this "wealth" by purchasing and realizing great appreciation, the cashing in and moving up...rinse repeat.

I watched my father make out really great in all his real estate we lived in, plus one vacation property...one house lived in for 15 years as a kid, the next for another 10+ etc....were talking major appreciation on those houses, and this isnt even considering the houses they bought/sold before I was born. Were talking buying a house for $22K and selling it 4 years later for $45K....this used to actually happen.

Now he can't sell the one he's in if he wanted to for half of what should be worth, but oh well...they're happy there

I guess this is a very "it depends" scenario. Many people who've bought homes got into big big financial jams. Some did well.

I think if you paid a fair price for your home and you plan on living there, it's not that bad. If you paid an inflated price and didn't stay 10 years, it could have been awful.

Personally, I absolutely despise doing the daily work and the constant upkeep. Cleaning gutters, shovelling snow, mowing grass, cutting shrubs. It's a complete and total waste of time. People who tell you they enjoy that type of stuff must be smoking crack, because its awful.

in the rent vs buy argument appreciation needs to be factored in - doesnt seem like its getting mentioned....most 10 year averages are going to be around 4-5%

People that aren't invesment savvy are better off buying a house than renting. But this depends on house prices vs rent prices.

The city where I live, Portland, seems expensive for housing. Also there are one or two very large employers here that drive a great portion of the economy. If one of them were to start a big round of layoffs, housing prices could easily hit a rough patch.

you guys are on crack. right now it would cost like $1100/month to rent the home i bought in cash for 100k. how is that even close? if this thread was from 2007 i could get it.

right now the cost to build a home is so much higher than the cost to buy a similar home built 5 years ago. eventually we will get through this glut and people will keep coming to America, probably faster in the future than they are now, and we will eventually start building homes again and home prices will definitely move higher and renting from 2012 onwards vs buying will be very clearly better to have bought.

what is crazy are the people who go and build a home now in 2012 just so they can have it the way they want it or whatever. in one little gated community type place we looked at, they had 3300 ft2 homes built during bubble in 2007 selling for 105,000 and the cost to build the exact same home started at $143,000 yet apparently you still had people coming in and doing that for gods knows why.

but, once we get this sorted and they start lending people money again, i dont see how, given the price of commodities, it is going to be bad to have bought for 105.000 when the starting price is 143 for the same thing?

It's not possible to find this deal in most US cities.

what are the rent to price ratio in most cities? in florida, rents are damn high compared to selling prices.

Pretty much this....

Time is the only factor in your life you can't buy more so spending it on maintenance or repetitive jobs willfully is pretty much dumb.

Loads of people who dont want to do those chores buy flats(apartments). Plus even though i've owned several houses I haven't done any of those ever in my whole life. Everything has to be paid for whetehr you rent or buy, if you live in a place where there's a lawn to be mowed then either you're doing it yourself or paying someone else to (or letting it grow)

Whether to rent or buy is just a matter of which is cheaper. Either can be a very bad financial decision as the difference can be vast. For many people it will be the biggest financial decision they can ever make.