By and large, I agree with you. Especially if you are single, owning real estate represents a massive commitment, both financial and to the local place, that nobody forced you to take. People need to remember that the default for real estate is to fall into disrepair and turn back into the dust of the earth; as someone who owns real estate, you are responsible for fighting that entropy, as is everyone else in your neighborhood, as living in the only well-maintained house on a block full of abandoned blight isn't going to rescue your property value.
With that said, sometimes you want to make that commitment, because it's a socially good choice, rather than a financially good choice. Children need stability. Moving houses, neighborhoods, schools is not good for them. Good parents make sacrifices for their children, including staying in jobs where they might make a little less compared to Yet Another Move.
For most families who want to provide stability for their children, the choice is between purchasing a house, or a long-term rental of an apartment owned by a public housing authority that is bound by law or regulation to keep rent increases down and renters in-place, so long as they continue to pay their rent. In the US, most people do not have access to the latter, or the latter are only found in bad neighborhoods where the public housing authority was underfunded and mismanaged. That leaves purchasing real estate as the only option.
> People need to remember that the default for real estate is to fall into disrepair and turn back into the dust of the earth; as someone who owns real estate, you are responsible for fighting that entropy,
And that costs money. However, it still costs money as a renter, because whatever the house costs to keep, the landlord is going to pass that cost on to the renter.
Actually not true. Landlords are just as susceptible to speculation as everyone else and just as capable of not doing the math as everyone else. There are plenty of landlords who are taking a loss on the monthly rent compared to their mortgage bill because they can't find anyone to rent at a price where they would break even on the mortgage, and refuse to sell because they're speculating that housing prices will rise faster than their losses, and/or that the losses are simply part of the cost of building equity.
Exactly. Real estate is highly emotional and irrational.
I personally know a ton of people that are keeping a house and renting it out at a loss (because of the market rate), because they cannot seem to emotionally agree to sell that house. This happens way more with real estate than with anything else. Half of the time they don't even realize they are losing money, the other half of the time they don't want to know they are losing money.
With that said, sometimes you want to make that commitment, because it's a socially good choice, rather than a financially good choice. Children need stability. Moving houses, neighborhoods, schools is not good for them. Good parents make sacrifices for their children, including staying in jobs where they might make a little less compared to Yet Another Move.
For most families who want to provide stability for their children, the choice is between purchasing a house, or a long-term rental of an apartment owned by a public housing authority that is bound by law or regulation to keep rent increases down and renters in-place, so long as they continue to pay their rent. In the US, most people do not have access to the latter, or the latter are only found in bad neighborhoods where the public housing authority was underfunded and mismanaged. That leaves purchasing real estate as the only option.