Poll:Do you Own your home outright?

[madatrub]

Title says it all. Curious the thoughts here. We all know the PROs and CONs.

Do you own your home?

1) Yes, Retired and Own my own home
2) No, Retired and Do Not own my own home
3) Yes, Not yet retired and own my own home
4) No, No yet retired and own my own home

We have the opportunity to do either or in retirement. Curious how many fit into each category in this forum

 

[W2R]

I'm retired and elderly (age 75). My home is completely 100% paid off.

I love this house and hope to live in it until my very last breath. So, no more rent or mortgage payments for me, ever.

 

[statsman]

At the beginning when we were both retired, we did not own our home. Still had about 7-8 years left on the mortgage. A year and a half later, we moved from a HCOL area to a MCOL area, and the new home was paid with no financing. So, we started at #2 for 18 months, and now are at #1.

 

[ERD50]

.... Curious how many fit into each category in this forum

Well, you may be curious, but the only thing you'll learn is how many decided to respond to each category. That may or may not be representative of the forum's members - no way to know that.

We all know the PROs and CONs. .... We have the opportunity to do either or in retirement.

Now I am curious

If you know the pros/cons, how is anyone else's decision going to help you? It's really dependent on a lot of personal details, it's not one-size-fits-all.

At any rate, I do "own my own home" (just ask the property tax collector!). I also carry a low interest mortgage on it that I could pay off any time I choose, which will likely be never, or until I move.

Or is this a rent/buy question? (Oh, now I see the word "outright" in the title, that wasn't in your response choices in your post so I missed it).

-ERD50

 

[skyking1]

We retired the mortgage early in 06.
It is just a way of doing things. I have enough cash on hand to build the second house. I won't need a construction loan and the nest egg will get replenished on the sale of the current home.
I think that when you buy has a lot to do with it. We purchased this one so long ago that the money was small. It is a different thing these days with real estate prices.

 

[FLSUnFIRE]

No mortgage no ("real") job. Bad, miss out on leveraged returns. Good, much lower cashflow needs makes managing taxable income easier and more efficient -especially for ACA MAGI as a single person.

 

[FiveDriver]

We are Retired and own our own Home. The house we're in has proved to be a wonderful store of value, increasing nicely since we bought it.

We haven't had a mortgage payment since 2005 when the Interest portion dipped too low to provide a Tax write-off. Wrote a check to Wells-Fargo and paid the remaining balance.

Taking that monthly payment out of the equation really helps the Cash Flow.

 

[FLSUnFIRE]

At any rate, I do "own my own home" (just ask the property tax collector!).

I just asked them, they said they are your landlord and you pay them rent every year!

 

[Montecfo]

Retired.

Have a mortgage.

Keeping a mortgage.

2.49% rate.

Arbitrage investing.

I think the old saw of paying off your mortgage makes a lot more sense with mortgages at 5,6,7,8% . Or even 12% like my first mortgage.

But some get psychic benefits from paying it off. And doing so is a major goal of some folks. I know it was for me early in home ownership when I made extra payments, etc.

So can make sense outside of the financial piece

 

[captain3d]

Retired I think. Rent where we live. Have 11 mortgages. Other people pay them for us.

 

[Mr. Tightwad]

Retired and own my home outright.

And two others as well.

 

[pb4uski]

1. Retired and own two homes free and clear.

That said, I don't think there is anything wrong with carrying a mortgage in retirement as long as you can easily afford the mortgage payments and other carrying costs.

 

[madatrub]

Well, you may be curious, but the only thing you'll learn is how many decided to respond to each category. That may or may not be representative of the forum's members - no way to know that.



Now I am curious

If you know the pros/cons, how is anyone else's decision going to help you? It's really dependent on a lot of personal details, it's not one-size-fits-all.

At any rate, I do "own my own home" (just ask the property tax collector!). I also carry a low interest mortgage on it that I could pay off any time I choose, which will likely be never, or until I move.

Or is this a rent/buy question? (Oh, now I see the word "outright" in the title, that wasn't in your response choices in your post so I missed it).

-ERD50

"Sometimes a poll is just a poll" - Sigmund Freud probably.

 

[Gumby]

After refinancing five times over the years to reduce the rate and shorten the term (and never taking any money out), we made our final mortgage payment 2.5 years before we retired and 23.5 years after we bought the house. It is the only house we have ever lived in (or owned).

 

[frayne]

Had my house paid off in 2000 and since then have moved twice and have been fortunate enough to just write a check for both those houses. Reason being, because I could and hate the idea of owing money to anyone or institution.

 

[tulak]

Odds are I’ll never have a paid off home. At 2.75%, there’s no incentive for me to pay off the mortgage. It’s big enough where I can itemize, which saves me in taxes.

So I guess I don’t “own” my home, but that’s ok with me.

 

[Car-Guy]

Owned my "homes" for the last ~20 years. (Can't remember the last time I had a mortgage) or made payments on anything for that matter.

 

[38Chevy454]

I'm category 1 now. Paid off house approx 5 years ago, which was about 2 years after retirement.

 

[Walt34]

We own this house outright, and had the previous house paid off about a year and a half before retirement. Quite a change from when I bought it, fresh out of a divorce and I was very definitely "house poor". And dating DW-to-be, although I didn't know it then, and she was okay with a Saturday night date being renting a movie for the VHS player, sending out for pizza and a bottle of, well, let's just say it wasn't a sought-after wine.

Somewhere we have a photo of her after we were married sitting on the floor in the living room reading a book. She's sitting on the floor because there wasn't a stick of furniture in the living room. Today is our 35th anniversary so I think it's gonna work!

 

[NW-Bound]

I got 2 homes, both paid off for some years now.

Lots of disposable income now.

 

[Rocky mtn high]

Paid off several years ago. I know there are good reasons to keep a mortgage. But for most people it’s true, “I owe,I owe, so off to work I go”

 

[Landolink]

We have not had a mortgage since 1999 (34 years old). I’m soon to be 58. One of the best decisions I ever made was to pay off my house when times were good. I’ve had a volatile career (former trader) and this really allowed me to weather various storms with very little financial stress.

 

[erkevin]

Currently own home. However, we are selling and moving back to Arizona this fall and will buy another with cash.

 

[LateToFIRE]

Is the question whether I own my home outright, as in no mortgage, or whether I own a home period? Cause I own a couple of homes, mortgaged, still working. Mortgages not the reason I'm still working.

 

[Dash man]

We have five homes all paid off. Our last mortgage was paid off in 2010. Our boys live in two homes that they will inherit along with our others.

When DW and I married in 1999, I made it a priority to pay off her mortgage.
After a close call with debt after my 1993 divorce, I’ve not taken on any debt for more than two months and always had cash to pay it off, except for a mortgage we took out to buy our primary home. We only got that mortgage because the rent we could collect on her townhouse would pay our new mortgage.