The mortgage-interest deduction doesn't do much for me because I don't have a big mortgage, if you don't pay a lot of interest it can quickly become negligible.

OTOH, our mortgage payment is probably at least a couple hundred dollars less that it would cost to rent (call that a wash after maintenance costs), and almost half of that payment goes to principal.

The mortgage-interest deduction doesn't do much for me because I don't have a big mortgage, if you don't pay a lot of interest it can quickly become negligible.

Well, it's just that few people seem to get that, while the MI deduction is nice to have if you have to have a mortgage, it always means you are paying more to the bank in interest than you are saving in taxes.

Anybody like to collect excellent bon mots and cheap shots? Poison pen letters and bad reviews?

Jay Mariotti, asshole sports columnist in Chicago, got fired. His editor had this to say:

'We wish Jay well and will miss him -- not personally, of course -- but in the sense of noticing he is no longer here, at least for a few days,'' Cooke said.

If I click on that link, I will cry.

If you stay in your home long enough, it will work out in your favor.

Also, if you own, you don't have to deal with things like people promising to fix things and then not doing it, or a landlord deciding they might like to sell the place you live.

Well, it's just that few people seem to get that, while the MI deduction is nice to have if you have to have a mortgage, it always means you are paying more to the bank in interest than you are saving in taxes.

In my case if it were not for some charitable deductions, my mortgage deduction wouldn't be enough to itemize so I would have an effectively zero deduction for my mortgage interest.

We've got about nine years to go on our mortgage now, we're starting to weigh the pros and cons of getting a nicer house vs. not having a mortgage.

Even if you own a home, you still have to "throw away" money on expenses like property taxes and mortgage interest (and likely more than you were throwing away in rent). In fact, for the first five years, you are basically paying all interest on your mortgage. For example, on a 30-year, $250,000 mortgage at 7% interest, your first 60 payments would total about $100,000. Of that you "throw away" about $85,000 on interest payments.

That parenthetical's a biggie, though. Even including our coop maintenance fee, we're paying less for housing now (with a mortgage) than we were renting 2 years ago.

And since your rent is mostly paying your landlord's mortgage & property taxes...I'm not sure I really see what his argument is. You're paying those things whether you rent or own, the only difference is who you pay it to.

Part of it is timing and location, but we have made out big time on home ownership. Our first house we lived in for about 5 years. We bought it for $45,000 and sold it for $67,000 with a mortgage payment that was little more than for a 1 bedroom apartment. This was a nice house with a good yard, 3 bedrooms, garage, basement, central air, no big problems to fix. Horrific school district though, hence the good price.

Even including our coop maintenance fee, we're paying less for housing now (with a mortgage) than we were renting 2 years ago.

I think it really depends on the market. I recently saw something that studied specific areas and, for example, it is much cheaper to be renting an equivalent house in the Sunset (ocean side of SF) than owning one.

More important, perhaps, is the fact that people overbuy. That is, they buy a much bigger place than they would rent.

Also, as with cars, a lot of people feel they need to trade up fairly quickly (or they move), so they lose some of the benefits of ownership because they don't stay put.

Yeah, we are paying way less mortgage than typical rents in our area. It just depends on where you live, when you bought, and when you sell.