Anybody got spare rent vs own advice lying around?

Owning is all well and good, but unless you can afford a place that won't need a lot of fixing, or can afford to have someone else do the fixing what needs to be done, renting remains a good option.

(Note: if you're especially handy with powertools and trained in home repair, obviously, the above balance changes somewhat.)

It also depends a lot on housing costs in your area.

Dude, Susan. I can only dream of being where you are. CC's aren't a problem for me anymore - I went after those first - but I'll be paying those student loans off forever.

Well, in theory they should've been paid in 2003--I was on a 10-year repayment schedule--but I took almost two years of deferral time.

CC's only became a problem for us when DH was unemployed for a big chunk of 2001. The small balance we'd been carrying started to creep up, but the real hit was right after he got a job. We were all, "Woohoo! We have money again!" So we booked four sets of plane tickets within a three-month period (two weddings and two family holiday trips), went wild at IKEA, I think there was a new computer involved somewhere, etc. And just when we were finally making a big dent in it, I had Annabel, went freelance, and had all those hospital bills to deal with.

In the big scheme of things, I probably went freelance too soon. And things like a Tivo, going to 15-20 M's games a year, and even our new laptop aren't exactly necessities. Though the laptop comes very, very close. But so far we haven't had the will, nor the absolute necessity, to make those big cuts, and I hope now that we've got these other debts paid off and my income is gradually improving, it won't come to that.

Housing costs are pretty low, what we could afford to buy would be pretty similar to what we could afford to rent, even with a low down payment. The big difference I'm seeing is that we want to move away sometime in the next 1-5 years. I'm tired of not being able to rip out the tub I hate or dig up the lawn, but I'm afraid of not being able to sell when we're ready to go and not building up a useful amount of equity in the meantime.

We're hoping to switch from renting to owning somewhere early in 2006. I'm not looking forward to it, because we've had an unbelievably sweet deal on rent. Our lackadaisical absentee landlord has never actually raised it, and we've been her since September '99. But this house is just getting too small for us now that we're a family of three. And that alone is forcing our rent v. own decision, because anything above a 2-bedroom is rare in a rental property.

Even though things have been tight and I'm seriously about ready to blow up my house right now, I would definitely recommend own rathe than rent. Real estate is probably the safest investment you can make.

Owning gets you tax breaks, which can be pretty considerable. I knew I'd be selling my co-op in NYC in five years or so when I bought it, so I put the tax money into paying extra on the mortage. This brought the principl down enough that when I sold it, I had a nice chunk of change. Being a homeowner is also good for your overall credit picture.

That's part of it, too, Susan. What we have now is technically a 2BR and it's way too small. So we need either a bigger 2BR or a 3+, with a yard, that takes dogs, and I'd prefer not to share walls as I really don't like knowing when my neighbors orgasm. There are rentals like that, but there are more for sale.

Susan, WooHoo! That's fabulous!

Poor Cindy! How's that nose feeling?

I knew I'd be selling my co-op in NYC in five years or so when I bought it, so I put the tax money into paying extra on the mortage. This brought the principl down enough that when I sold it, I had a nice chunk of change.

That's a very interesting idea.

Actually the tax breaks may not be that much if housing costs are low in your area. Last year I couldn't itemize enough to beat the standard deduction even with the mortgage interest deduction.