Talk:Owning vs renting
Some of the sentences I copied from the Bogleheads wiki seem a little too close to To Rent Or Buy? The Financial Issues and To Rent Or Buy? There's More To It Than Money. Some rephrasing is needed, plus additional sources. The FWF threads are potential sources of ideas, but one of the topics has 19 pages... --Quebec 17:32, 1 March 2015 (MST)
Rephrasings
- In the opening paragraph, I removed "(condo)" from "apartment (condo)" to simplify things. A condo is the same as a home except for the condo fees.
- Under "Home affordability" I removed the weekly mortgage payments and clarified the wording. (Monthly mortgage payments are the normal frequency in the US.)
--LadyGeek 19:35, 1 March 2015 (MST)
In "Owning as an investment": "So, if you lose a job because of hard economic times, you may find your home equity simultaneously diminished." did not make sense in the context presented and may lead to an incorrect association between jobs and locale. Once that was removed, I consolidated the last two sentences. --LadyGeek 18:52, 3 March 2015 (MST)
- The material that was modified had been copied from the Bogleheads wiki, so you may want to edit it there too. --Quebec 16:25, 5 March 2015 (MST)
Mortgage as a negative bond
I added this section, as some Bogleheads forum members consider their home as part of their investment portfolio. There does not seem to be a consensus, however. I didn't research any Canadian data sources; I just copied the Bogleheads references as a placeholder. --LadyGeek 18:52, 3 March 2015 (MST)
- One problem is figuring out how much imputed rent is worth, since it's not "traded" (it has no market price). You have to take all housing costs into account, and so on. It's too subjective. I tried to do this for a while (including my house and my mortgage in my AA) and gave up. Really, a house is not an investment, it's a place to live. Anyway, we can leave this section there for now. --Quebec 16:32, 5 March 2015 (MST)
- I would agree. FYI - the Bogleheads have very strong opinions. Here's a 7+ page thread on a similar topic: Do you consider mortgage payments as savings? --LadyGeek 19:46, 5 March 2015 (MST)
Children (non-financial considerations)
I recommend removing all mention of the Home-ownership and family formation report. I strongly disagree with most points, as the report contains many socio-economic stereotypes (especially section 2.4.1 regarding UK results). A google search shows that the impact of children on home ownership has no clear conclusion home ownership children.
Beyond the financial considerations, perhaps it's better to say that school location and neighbourhood composition (finding children of the same age, etc.) may influence the decision? --LadyGeek 19:46, 5 March 2015 (MST)
- OK,
Done --Quebec 12:39, 6 March 2015 (MST)
Ready for main space?
I'm done with this article. What do others think? --Quebec 17:22, 13 March 2015 (MDT)
- I modified the section hierarchy as the section formatting is difficult to see between levels 2 and 3. There was also some ambiguity which sections applied to owning a home; I tried to clarify.--LadyGeek 19:50, 13 March 2015 (MDT)
- OK, I further added "owning" to some subtitles. --Quebec 08:10, 14 March 2015 (MDT)
- The section "Inflation and deflation" has no supporting citation, but I think we removed this association earlier. Local housing values depend on many factors, inflation / deflation is one of many. I recommend removal or clarification. --LadyGeek 19:50, 13 March 2015 (MDT)
- Done I've deleted "Inflation and deflation" as this is only one factor as you say. Plus in Canada inflation has been low recently while house prices have gone mad, so the correlation is not convincing over the short term. Easiest solution was deletion. --Quebec 08:10, 14 March 2015 (MDT)