When it comes to renting versus owning a home after FIRE, where do you rank the importance of locking in housing costs as a reason to own? I'm thinking other things are more important, such as whether you want to own at all or whether you like a town, neighborhood, or house enough to make a purchase.
Lately I've been reconsidering my plan to rent indefinitely. It's been 10 years since I last owned, and I've really enjoyed the freedom and convenience of renting. But consumer inflation, the real estate price surge, and other developments of the past year have me worried about the possibility of runaway rent hikes during my retirement. Of course home prices are getting scary too, and I'm also concerned about being priced out forever should I want to buy again someday.
Am I just suffering from the newbie ER jitters? Should I trust that my portfolio (per FIRECalc) will keep up with inflation in general? Or is something as significant as housing expenses worth being more proactive about trying to control?
Basically, I'm on the fence now about going back to owning, and I wonder
whether the benefit of locking in housing costs (at least the mortgage portion) should be enough to sway me toward buying. This is not the only reason I'm considering owning again, but it's among the top ones. Just pondering how much weight to give it.
Lately I've been reconsidering my plan to rent indefinitely. It's been 10 years since I last owned, and I've really enjoyed the freedom and convenience of renting. But consumer inflation, the real estate price surge, and other developments of the past year have me worried about the possibility of runaway rent hikes during my retirement. Of course home prices are getting scary too, and I'm also concerned about being priced out forever should I want to buy again someday.
Am I just suffering from the newbie ER jitters? Should I trust that my portfolio (per FIRECalc) will keep up with inflation in general? Or is something as significant as housing expenses worth being more proactive about trying to control?
Basically, I'm on the fence now about going back to owning, and I wonder
whether the benefit of locking in housing costs (at least the mortgage portion) should be enough to sway me toward buying. This is not the only reason I'm considering owning again, but it's among the top ones. Just pondering how much weight to give it.