Poll-Do You Rent or Own Your Major Residence?

[Sandhog]

I used to own a house before my divorce. Now I rent small studio apartment just big enough to lie down to sleep and shower while working two jobs to pay for aftermath of divorce and save for my ER.

[Moscyn]

Own my residence. Used to have a holiday home which is not rented but realised that we only stay there one or two days a year and a lot of our relatives end up using the place, so sold that a couple of years back.

[rescueme]

Quote:

Originally Posted by boont I have a house in San Francisco and another one in the wine country, about two and a half hours north of the City. I also have some other residential properties in Sacramento.

Nancy Pelosi - is that U? ...

[East Texas]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JmfromTx My wife was the same way and that's why I'm sitting where I am instead of getting things ready to go to work tomorrow.

Long before my retirement I had friends who would trade in their two year old cars for a new one while I kept my paid-for 10 year old car. My friends would gently chide me that I deserved a new car.

I had several co-workers come to work on Mondays wearing new clothes and shoes. They bought new clothes because they felt they worked hard and deserved it. I had three pair of slacks, five shirts, two pair of shoes (black and brown) as my work clothes. They just didn't understand why I would be such a minimalist.

Several of my friends felt the need to move every few years and they always took out another 30 year mortgage. They just couldn't understand why I would choose to live in the same house in the neighborhood. They said I deserved a bigger house.

My co-workers would eat in the company cafeteria every day while I brown-bagged. They felt sorry for me because I obviously couldn't afford to buy my lunch.

Lots of my friends ate out several times during the week. They didn't understand why I stayed home and had meals from the seal-a-meals in my freezer. They said I worked hard and I deserved a treat.

When I retired at 55, these same friends were incredulous that I would take such a risk. After all, if they couldn't afford to retire, how could I? I told them I worked hard, saved hard, and I deserved it.

Fast forward five years. They're still working. They still have little saved. They still consider my financially comfortable retirement as "lucky".

[rescueme]

Quote:

Originally Posted by East Texas Fast forward five years. They're still working. They still have little saved.

Because they "deserved it"? ...

[Jake46]

I own. Paid off the mortgage in 2002. Great feeling.

[KingB]

Quote:

Originally Posted by East Texas I had three pair of slacks, five shirts, two pair of shoes (black and brown) as my work clothes.

Why do you need 2 pairs of shoes? Black goes with anything.

[Dranoel]

Sold the house and contents about a year ago. Happily renting in Costa Rica ever since.

[freebird5825]

Own the first house I ever bought (1984). No mortgage as of 1998.

Currently doing a very loose cost/benefit analysis of staying in the house and/or the area. No rush decisions, looking at a 4 year plan, maybe less.
It is a beautiful house and requires very little maintenance, but things like school taxes doing an upward creep, the distance from services, and just plain the desire to live somewhere different are being to "force" us to arrive at a stay/go decision.
Mr B is in "stay" mode right now pending the outcome of his VA VR&E counselor making a decision whether to fund continuing education for him.
I'm in "undecided" mode.

[Rustic23]

I put I own it, however, considering the property taxes in Texas, you might say I rent it.

[GregLee]

Since I am irrationally debt averse, I put off buying for a long time, and when I did buy, I made as large a down payment as I could. That left a 10 year mortgage, which made me uncomfortable for that decade, but now that's paid off, and I'm feeling much better. The house is old and in poor condition, but the location is great, and I expect to just stay here.

[Walt34]

We own outright, no mortgage. When I retired we sold the paid-for house and wrote a check for the new one in WV. There was enough left over to write two more checks, one for a new pickup truck to replace the 18-year-old truck, and one to replace DW's 14-year-old car.

I'm pretty sure I'll never again pay cash for a new house, a new pickup truck, and a new car all within six months.

[vicente solano]

She owns a flat and a country house. I own a flat. The three mortgages almost paid off.

[In-control]

We have been debt free, owning our house since 2007. We ran w/o debt for 1 yr before ER. We will be selling when the kids are done with college and most likely rent in the area we want before buying a condo.

It is very liberating being debt free. The $ that was paying down the debt went right into investments.

[Retch The Grate]

Single in Silicon Valley so I'm still renting. Prices continue to be way out of line with rents.

[Keim]

Funny how your eyes sometimes see things wrong. I read the comment below as "We will be selling the kids when done with college," and thought to myself "Why not before? Save a lot of money."

Quote:

Originally Posted by In-control ...will be selling when the kids are done with college...

[mh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Purron Own. DH and I have become too funky in our old age for landlords to put up with us.

YouTube - The Funky Fritters - Everything I do gonna be Funky from now on

[East Texas]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rustic23 I put I own it, however, considering the property taxes in Texas, you might say I rent it.

Now see, that's the advantage of living on a ranch. My property taxes in San Antonio for my moderately assessed house and the small parcel of land on which it stood - within about 12' of my neighbor - was about $3,000 a year. We pay about $750 a year for the 100 acres and that includes the one acre homestead and several outbuilding.

Before any of you get upset about ag exemptions - be thankful for them. They keep the prices of commodities low. If I didn't have the exemption on the hay meadow, I'd have to charge the rancher who mows and bales it significantly more and that increase gets pushed all the way down to the consumer. It's not just my increase, if the rancher didn't have an ag exemption for the cattle, your cost to purchase that nice steak would increase in multiples more than my piddling little increase. It's the same with our timber - ag prices keep lumber costs low. I know it's easy to complain about the rising prices; they would be much higher without ag exemptions.

Quote:

Originally Posted by KingB Why do you need 2 pairs of shoes? Black goes with anything.

I bought the black pair and got the brown pair half off. They're identical except for color. Brown goes much better with tan slacks. I've had these shoes for over 20 years. Every now and then they get half-soled and heeled. Now I only wear them to church and official family functions that require something other than jeans.

Now that I'm retired, I usually wear workbooks or Mucks. I do have two pair of jeans. I guess I'm stepping up the world - three pair of slacks and two pairs of jeans. The closet certainly is getting crowded.

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by East Texas We pay about $750 a year for the 100 acres and that includes the one acre homestead and several outbuilding.

Yep, property taxes are low for Texas tick and chigger ranchers...

Quote:

Originally Posted by East Texas Now that I'm retired, I usually wear workbooks or Mucks.

Guess you switch over to the Mucks when the pages wear out?

[Calgary_Girl]

We've been mortgage-free for almost 10 years. The past few months however, we've been thinking of building a slightly bigger house which would be our dream house and also give us more room for the kids.

We can afford to build the house outright but would have to use some money from our taxable portfolio. Our dilemma is 1) do we take out a mortgage for approximately $200K, or 2) do we cash in some of our taxable portfolio knowing that we'd pay capital gains and give up a higher dividend yield than what the new mortgage rate would be?

I'm leaning towards the former...decisions, decisions.