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Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: STEVE who wrote (11483)	7/8/2003 11:10:43 AM
From: GraceZ	Respond to of 306849

Been a foolish renter for the last 10 years since my divorce and can remember buying a townhouse 15 minutes before the crash in '89 and certainly don't want to repeat that experience. If you'd held at that level would you have gotten some appreciation (aside from the divorce- which is probably why you are a renter)? I can understand your hesitancy since you rented during the time you might have been better off buying, so you don't want to buy during the time when you'd be better off renting. Housing moves up and down in bursts and trying to time it is difficult because the bursts up sometimes can last longer than you can stand watching it move up away from you. Over the long haul, buying almost always winds up being more money than renting even with the tax advantage just because people have a tendency to sink money into their houses. A lot of people feel the extra is worth it in terms of quality of life. In reality, all we ever do is rent space on this earth. Who's to say whether your renting for ten years was foolish?I always say, after you leave one marriage its best to wait a while before jumping into another one. Home ownership is a lot like being married. Easy to get into when the value is high but hard to get out of when the value is sinking (and a lot of paperwork). Not to mention they are both fraught with a lot of hidden costs you'd rather not think about. -g- Still people keep doing both, so there must be some benefit.