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Homes "unaffordable" in 99% of nation for average American (www.cbsnews.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Right, and those can be anticipated and mitigated. Options:

home warranty - essentially forces you to save for larger expenses
be pessimistic about expected lifetimes - i.e. only assume your appliances will live while they're under warranty (most can last more than double that with proper maintenance)
forego most or all other savings until you can pay for the highest ticket item in cash - it's extremely unlikely that everything will fail at once

If something truly out of the blue comes up, you're usually in appliance warranty or home owners insurance claim territory. The vast majority of the time, "unexpected" expenses could've been planned for, but the individual didn't do their due diligence. A 20 year old furnace going out isn't an emergency, that's its expected lifetime (and with maintenance, a high quality furnace can last double that).

Owning a home is expensive, and so is renting. If you're paying more owning a home on average vs renting for the same size of place (after, say, 6 years or so), you're doing something seriously wrong.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Again, not everyone who owns a home saves up for those things. Case in point, one of my friends budgets for an annual furnace tuneup at the end of summer. Well, they discovered that the furnace is dead and won't start up once it gets cold. So her plan is to work a second job for a month to be able to afford getting a new furnace since it's close to winter.

If she was renting, the owner would simply replace the furnace and she wouldn't have to worry about it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Does she budget for other longer term expenses, like car replacement and repairs, retirement, or college for kids (assuming she has kids)? If not, this should be a wakeup call that she needs to get her finances in order, because working a second job shouldn't be the solution to every periodic expense.

I don't know where you live, but at least in my area, I had to finish a new homeowner packet to get my mortgage, which laid out common expenses. AFAIK, that's a pretty common thing because banks don't want you to default due to an unexpected repair cost.

But maybe renting is better for her if she is unable or unwilling to plan ahead. My point is that, in most cases, owning ends up being cheaper than renting for the same space.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm willing to bet there's a lot of homeowners like this. Why do you think there have been so many foreclosures?

New homeowners get the house then they think that's it.

But it's not.

Homeownership isn't for everyone. Not everyone is financially responsible to own a house.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I absolutely agree. I'm just saying that's what homeownership requires, otherwise you'll be stuck with an endless money pit financing every little repair.