Comments on: The Value of Establishing a Permanent Residence

By: DDFD at DivorcedDadFrugalDad.com

DDFD at DivorcedDadFrugalDad.com — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:57:58 +0000

Once kids enter the picture– a sense of stability is very important, but life does get in the way sometimes.

By: Janette

Janette — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 15:01:00 +0000

My son- both in the Army and an Army brat- bought a house last week at the ripe old age of 24. My husband and I did not buy our first house until we were 40.
I asked him why he seemed to NEEDED to buy a house at his first duty station. His reply was, “I will always have a home!” I guess he hated the moving more than we thought.

By: Bill in NC

Bill in NC — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 20:10:58 +0000

For the same amount of living space, it’s cheaper to rent.

And financially, residential real estate, at best, is merely an inflation hedge, not an investment.

I understand the emotional attachment to ownership, but few objectively consider the whole cost (buying expenses, taxes/assessments, maintenance/repair, selling expenses) when they compare rent v. buy.

By: Pam McCormick

Pam McCormick — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:19:38 +0000

VERY interesting discussion.I don’t know what I would do or if I would do the same thing over again.We are married 32 years, together 37yrs have lived in our house for 27 years bought and paid for.Alot of hard work and sacrifice for the home base you talk of.Small little cape cod 1 acre of land nothing fancy just clean and comfortable.Early on we rented great apartments and moved maybe 2-3 times before purchasing the starter house lived there for 2 yrs then bought this house.It was the times and now with the economy maybe this is a dinosauer way of doing things I don’t know.If you always create the “feeling of family” and home where ever you live you won’t go wrong!

By: Jeff S

Jeff S — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:57:33 +0000

I work in the property management field so hopefully I can add something valuable to the conversation. I definitely see the upside to owning a house. Your payments do not rise (and hopefully your income does), you will eventually pay it off and you can make any change you want. Don’t like that wall? Knock it down! Try doing that as a renter!

As a renter you will never “pay off” your rent. In fact, it goes up as the owners mortgage stays the same. Maybe he wants to sell his house and now you have to move. Being at the mercy of the landlord has never sounded good to me.

By: Mrs. Accountability

Mrs. Accountability — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 20:54:05 +0000

We moved around a lot when I was growing up so it was also very important for me to provide a home for my children where we would live for years at a time. The funny thing is, you provide for your children what you want, then they end up not liking it. We lived in one home for seven years and now have been in this one seven years. My youngest son complained and asked how come we can’t move to a new house like his aunt and cousins are always getting to do. Can’t win for losing.

By: AM

AM — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 11:57:16 +0000

@Shogun -

I have had the feeling of homeownership. It was really great – until the bathtub leaked and we spent a Christmas holiday remodeling a bathroom.

Looking back, I would have rather had the time with my kids. The day we handed over the keys and weren’t responsible for a house was one of the better days of our lives.

And ownership is not a “permanent” at times as we’d like. Homes can be foreclosed on or taken back for taxes. If you are extremely unlucky and the town or state would like to put a road where you live, good luck hanging onto that “permanent” house. And as mentioned previously, that same permanency can work against you in the form of limited job opportunities and/or being unable to move out of now bad neighborhoods.

Yet another the problem is that the current correction may go on for many years. Normal real estate cycles are something like 7 years up, 7 down or flat. We’re coming off of the largest bubble in history. 3 years out is too soon, and indeed most numbers still don’t work when doing a rent vs. buy analysis.

Would we own again? Sure, if the numbers worked. Is it vital to our mental health and that of our children? No. We create the home, where ever we are, in whatever we are living in. “Needing” to own a home for the emotional value rings of a possibly unhealthy materialism. Personally, I’ve felt much freer not needing to be an owner.

I guess I think that life, ultimately, is a rental proposition. You can’t take any of it with you except, possibly, the experiences you collected. For the moment, I’d rather collect experiences with my kids than at Home Depot.

By: Kristen@FiLife

Kristen@FiLife — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 03:02:26 +0000

Such a good conversation. I agree that there is something settling and fulfilling about having a “home base”. The best situation is when that “home base” provides emotional AND financial stability. That stability can be achieved through renting or owning – depending on the situation.

By: Heather

Heather — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 01:47:49 +0000

Reading this was like reading my own biography. My family growing up never had a home of their own and we bounced around a few times too. I actually did buy a home a few years ago, but the neighborhood got really bad, so we are now back to being renters in a nicer neighborhood. We are slowly starting to save for a house again. We have been renting our townhome for a few years, but it would be nice to have a home of our own with a yard for my daughter to play in. Maybe, someday!

By: Frugal Dad

Frugal Dad — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:42:45 +0000

@LuAnn: Welcome, thanks for dropping by! Mandi is our newest Life Skills Network member, and we are thrilled to have her aboard.

Keep in mind what others have reiterated here in the comments, you don’t have to live in a home you bought just to establish permanency. There are plenty of other options, and providing a loving environment for the kids in any home is the most important thing you can do.