JEFF DEBRUYN

Musician. Anarchist. Straight Edge. Atheist. Positive thinker.

More on the American Dream

Since my last couple posts have been regarding the “American Dream”, I figured I should continue the trend.  I’ve already voiced my opinion on a good ol’ college education. So now I’ll attempt to dismantle the other major piece of the dream-owning your own home.

To clarify, I think owning your own home would be a great thing in principle.  I also generally disagree with the idea of renting property (I will probably rant about this and my other qualms with Capitalism later).  However, given the way the current system works I think owning a home isn’t really the smartest idea given the costs involved.  I will also be realistic and concede that Capitalism isn’t going to end anytime soon so therefore I think renting is an acceptable alternative.  ANYWAYS, here are some reasons why you should not buy a house:

To start, it severely ties you down.  If you want to travel, move, relocate for a job, etc it becomes a major process.  It can take a lot of time to sell a house depending on the economy.  If you rent, you can essentially up and leave whenever you want with the only major penalty being losing a security deposit for breaking a lease.

There is far less stress involved.  When you rent you don’t have a huge mortgage/debt hanging over your head for years on end.  Not to mention you aren’t responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the property.  The landlord takes care of replacing appliances, shoveling the driveway, etc.

A common counter-argument is that you are “throwing away your money” when you rent.  I disagree.  When you break it down, someone who rents and someone who pays a mortgage are both paying monthly for a place to live.  The only difference is many many years down the line the one paying the mortgage will get to say he owns the place where he lives.  But the important thing is they both still have a place to live.  If that’s the goal, is it really that beneficial to own it?

Finally, I’m going to get real conspiracy-nut-job on you and praise the fact that you don’t have to pay a real estate tax!  Avoiding taxes is huge, at least in my book.  The more fluid you can remain the better.  So pay your rent in cash and stay off the Government’s map.  Being locked down into a permanent residence, paying real estate taxes, and being in debt are all things I would want to avoid at all costs.

Of course all of this doesn’t apply if you’ve got tons of money to throw around.  If you can afford it, by all means buy a house.

(Source: dailyfinance.com)

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