Is a home an asset or liability?

[Amber Lamps]

Originally Posted by Flexin

You didn't read what I wrote. You don't cover all that you put in. You have cost no matter what. Its the cost of owning. But on the day you sell you have something of value. When you leave a rental you might get your deposit back.

And when a home owners taxes goes up so does the taxes on the rental. So that means that if the cost get too high they have to increase rent so there isn't a huge savings. And you are paying for the carpet and so on. Your paying it in your rent. They don't just decide to give you something because its tuesday. They are maintaining the property to keep the value in the unit (and stay out of court). You might also be paying for that new Benz in the driveway.

I doesn't matter how you look at it. At the end of a morgage a home owner has something worth money. The renter that rented for those 25 years lives in something that is worth something but that is to the owner.

If renting was so great there would be no where to rent because no one would buy. :P

Renting is right for some but not all.

James

If that's the case then subtract those amounts from my rent figure. You aren't including them for the homeowner. Come on bro, at least try to play a little fair. When you set up your buyer, you made a point of leaving out taxes, upkeep, etc. Then you go on about how I pay those things IN MY RENT. That's my argument. I pay $460/month plus $140/month utilities (electric, cable, gas) for a $600 per month living expense TOTAL. I don't pay anything else because it is included in my rent. I don't pay a water bill, I don't pay for trash pick up, I don't pay to have the grass mowed, I don't pay for repairs, I don't pay property tax, etc. Sure it's in my rent but that's my point, how much of that is included in your house payment? 0 You can't decide to leave all that stuff out of your equation and declare that this is a fair comparison. Granted, I can exaggerate but you are eliminating all the negative factors in total.

FWIW BTW, the leasing company wants me to sign another lease for....$460/month.