Do you rent or own?

[fivetails]

Just a poll - if you want to say 'what' you rent or own, that's up to you.:001_smile:

 

 

Edit: hmm, my wording sounds funny on the 'rent' option... by "your own place", I just mean the normal basic renting situation.

[fivetails]

Answering my own poll - we rent. Specifically, we rent a 3 bedroom thing in a fourplex rowhouse thing.. they're (really) old PMQs (military housing) from back when there was a base here. It sucks - dark and dreary, noisy neighbours, mold all over the basement walls. Blech. We're looking for a house to rent, but no luck yet. Well, we've seen some, but they've been either too expensive for us or falling apart. Looking for the happy medium. ;)

[Tina in Ny]

We own right now, but as soon as we sell our house we will be renting

Tina

[TammyinTN]

We are stranded in mandatory military stairwell housing. It stinks but we wanted to say in Europe so it was the only option. I miss the house we rented at our last location...3000 sq feet of wonderful space, yard, walking paths....I hate living on post.

[Melissa in Australia]

own our own home, we built our own home. we did it in small stages, as we could afford it, the first couple of years with no power, as the fammily grew, we added to it. for a while we had 2 bedrooms with 5 children, my DH and I sleeping out on the veranda. we have extended it to fit us all in now. we have managed to never have a mortgage. just slight discomfit until we could save up for the next stage.:001_smile:

[Renee in NC]

We own a mobile home on a rented lot.:D

[TravelingChris]

We rent a 2200 house with a pool. We used to own in the past but decided not to buy when we moved here in summer 2006 for two reasons- we didn't know how long we would be here, and we thought the housing prices would fall. Boy, have they fallen.

[Michelle in OK]

We own. If we are blessed enough to sell this house when the time comes we will most likely rent for the rest of our military career.

[Quiver0f10]

We are renting and will probably continue for another 1-2 years.

[Gretchen in NJ]

We own our own home. We do most of the fixer-up work ourselves. There wasn't much here when we bought the house, so it was easy to improve upon.

[muffinmom]

We have owned this home for 12 years. Before that we owned a townhouse in Knoxville for a few years. Rented apartments before and after the townhome.

[lori in tx]

We rent too, it is a duplex. WE have a wonderful landlord that will not do a thing. IT doesn't like repairing anything leaking, broken or not working:glare: hmm but on the upside we have a great small backyard, our neighbors could be worse (now that they got rid of the cats it is not so bad) and the place is small and easy to clean so I actually do get it clean.

blessings

lori

[Dayle in Guatemala]

We've always rented because we knew we would be going onto the mission field and didn't want to get tied down to a house we had to sell. In hindsight, that was a good decision for us because when we moved here the market was already going into a slump. We probably wouldn't have been able to sell.

 

Also, dh and I wanted to be able to live on one income. Since he was a youth pastor, our income wasn't really large! Any house we would have been able to afford would have been a major fixer upper. DH isn't handy at all, so we would have had to hire so much done anytime something needed fixing that it would have been a strain on our budget. So, renting was great because if there was something major broken, it wasn't our responsibility to fix it.

[Kathleen in VA]

We've owned this house since 1990. It is a 1100sf 3br/2b rambler on 1/2 acre on a dirt road. 3 of my children have never lived any place else. Kinda weird for me since I grew up as a Navy brat.

[Mama Lynx]

We sold our house to be able to follow DH on contracts more freely. Now we rent a house wherever we land for contracts. We currently rent a four bedroom house in a nice neighborhood, and so far our landlord seems great - very responsive!

 

In retrospect, I prefer having a home base to go back to. DH would like us to buy a house in our current area and make it our home base, but I think it will be a couple of years, at least, before we buy again. And then, looking at the people who lost their homes in the flooding this year ... sometimes I think renting is the way to go! While I dislike not owning property and having that ownership and permanency, it's also nice to have the landlord have the ultimate liability :)

[nukeswife]

Because we do both. We rent and own. We rent the house we are currently in and own the one my brother lives in. We're military and wanted to hold onto the house we bought near my parents but because it's in WI and my dh is in the Navy we most likely won't be back there to live for any length of time until after he retires.

[Scarlett]

I checked own...but of course I really mean I'm in the process of owning. My dream is to be mortgage free. 9 more years!!!! Earlier if possible.

 

Oh and what we 'own' is a 3 br, 2 1/2 bath, 3 car garage on one acre at the edge of a fair size city. We love our home. We do not aspire to 'move up' again even if we have the money. Instead we will add a pool, a shop, and just continue to update.

[Remudamom]

We own our ranch, with three houses on it. We own a house in another state that ds20 is living in while in college. This house is a mystery to us, since we've never seen it. We let ds be in charge of picking it out and maintaining it.

[Laura Corin]

I said 'rent', but we are only renting for another couple of days in Hong Kong (750 sq. ft. or so), then a few months (we hope) in temporary accommodation in Scotland (four bed cottage), before buying our own place there. We own a house in London that is rented out.

 

Laura

[elegantlion]

We own, but hope to move in the next 12 to 18 months. We hope to buy an RV and travel some before we settle down again, probably in southeast Texas.

[Ellie]

We bought our first house in 1978.

 

Because we bought that house in 1978, we were able to sell the final house in California and buy a house outright when we moved to Texas. It's a mighty fine feeling, lol.

 

My grandparents never bought a house. When they were in their 70s they finally bought a mobile home and put it on their own lot. My mother and I speculated that my grandfather just fearful about the future and couldn't make that commitment.

 

Anyway, I just threw that in for a Monday morning thought :-)

[Chelle in MO]

We own a smallish ranch style 3 br, 2 ba home that we've lived in for 10 yrs. When we were first looking at houses back then, we didn't want anything 10 yrs. old because we didn't want to start out w/a house that would soon be needing major repairs. We now live in that house and are making the repairs!

 

Before here, we've rented apts. and houses, lived on a USAF base (Minot, ND), and lived w/family when we were preparing for another move. We had 10 addresses in our first 10 yrs. together--now just one address in the second 10! After we had been here for a couple of years, we kept feeling like we were supposed to be packing boxes again! It took a while to really feel settled. Now we can't imagine leaving.

 

Chelle

[KatieJ]

Before here, we've rented apts. and houses, lived on a USAF base (Minot, ND),

 

My DH had just graduated Tech school and was working for the company that built a dam there. Housing was just not available and he ended up renting a 2 bedroom something for us. We got marrried and lived there for about 3 weeks. He coulnd't handle the job and I couldn't handle the neighborhood! We moved more than a few times after that...we bought a couple of houses and rent them out. We have been in this house for 12 years now..longest we have lived anywhere.

[Amy in NH]

We rented for seven years (a nice big apartment in FL for one year, a little tiny apartment in NH for one year, and then a huge drafty house for five years) before buying our home last summer. Like Christina, we might now own the work we have put into it since then.

[MNClaire]

Own it free and clear. Just like both of our parents owned theirs outright, too.

[LKMN]

We own our home but as the kids get closer to college we are planning our down sizing.

[brehon]

I said we own it, but really, the bank owns it.

 

:iagree: Our situation as well. Dh bought the house/land before we married and then we needed to expand the house as our family expanded. Although we did most of the work ourselves (the beauty of living out in the county -- no building codes to worry about) we still ended up having to re-finance our mortgage and roll a home improvement loan into it. We're working very hard to pay down the mortgage to own the property outright! I work doubles when I can and we put the extra money (such that it is) into extra payments. But, oy vey, working 48 hour shifts is getting harder as I get older.

[Chelle in MO]

KatieinMich~

 

I hope your 3 weeks there was during the summer!

 

Chelle

[KatieJ]

It was in September. We were married on the 6th and were gone by the end of the month! We did the drive from Central MN thru North Dakato to Wyoming for many years after that tho. DH family settled in Cody Wyoming and we drove it once a year at least. It is ugly up there during snow storms!

[Peela]

We rent the house we live in, but we are buying (could hardly call it own, yet :) ) two investment properties in the country.

The property prices in our city went through the roof in the last few years and we can't afford to buy anywhere near where we live,and we want to live in the area, for the kids' sakes.

But we live well, in a beautiful suburb, lots of nature, close to the river, so no complaints.

[BritAnnia]

My dh was based in Minot, perhaps we should have a spinoff thread "Who has lived in Minot?" :D

I never lived there, dh was based there while in the USAF and he got out to return to his homestate of NC a few weeks before we were married.

[Jackie in AR]

We rent a 2200 house with a pool. We used to own in the past but decided not to buy when we moved here in summer 2006 for two reasons- we didn't know how long we would be here, and we thought the housing prices would fall. Boy, have they fallen.

 

We own our home, but today I would much prefer to be in your situation, Christina: renting a home with a pool! Is it ever hot!

 

Sounds like your family made a great decision to wait to buy a house in your current market.

[Just Me]

We rent. We had some wonderful friends who, when dh graduated from Seminary, asked if we would like to rent the house they had on the market! So, they took it off the market, and we moved in! We love it - a bedroom for everyone (except dh and I, of course we share! :D), in a neighborhood we love, with a great yard for the dogs, a creek in the backyard for the boys to explore, and a tree house. For a while, I was adamant about saving to buy a home. But after living here, and realizing that we can't afford to buy this place, I am content with renting for a while. That plus the fact that my kids are getting older, and I really want to travel with them before they are gone...

:auto:

[LaMere Academy]

we rent, we just moved to a new state last year. Not sure where I want to be exactly.

[Janna]

Wow, Melissa! That's incredible! Great job, I'm very impressed! You should call Dave Ramsey with that story - he'd love it!

 

edited to add - oops, now that I see you're in Australia, calling Dave Ramsey probably isn't an option. Perhaps an email? Or do you even know who Dave Ramsey is, LOL?

[Testimony]

I mean no mortgage, nothing, just taxes and utilities. We own the deed, the land, etc. We paid it off in 15 years. It would have been sooner if I did not do something dumb. We have been debt-free since February.:party:

 

Blessings,

Karen

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

 

:hurray:

[Chelle in MO]

It was in September. We were married on the 6th and were gone by the end of the month! We did the drive from Central MN thru North Dakato to Wyoming for many years after that tho. DH family settled in Cody Wyoming and we drove it once a year at least. It is ugly up there during snow storms!

We arrived there (driving separate cars) in the first blizzard of the year! Later that winter, we got over 20 in. of snow in about that number of hours. It was a different life, that's for sure. We found the people to be really nice, so that helped a lot!

 

Oh! We were supposed to be talking about renting or owning weren't we? I'm sorry for the hijack!

 

Chelle

[Colleen]

We own our farm. We paid it off last December and rang in new year by burning our mortgage in a bonfire by the river.:D

[Philothea]

We rent. There was no way we were going to buy when the market was so high.

 

Everyone was telling us "You're throwing your money away,idiots, buy NOW." But the joke is on them, because now we are not stuck with a 350,000 mortgage for a house we hate that is really worth 60,000 in other parts of the country. :)

 

Someone in the family offered us a 'deal' for 360,000 we could have bought either a 4 bedroom cape with no updates since it was built in the 40's and a leaky basement that has to be pumped out. Or a 3 family house that had never had any repairs done on a busy ghetto-type side street.

 

I am so glad we rent, even if it is an apartment. I can't imagine being tied down to a house that I hate. I still think rent is way too high in this part of the country.

[mommaduck]

Renting a large farm house, some land, outbuilding, and fruit trees/vines.

[HSMom2One]

while we were rebuilding after the high tech crisis and my husband's career displacement. We love the serene lifestyle out here in the wine country and decided to stay permanently, so we are just now in the process of buying the same house we've been living in. At least we know the house well and realize what we're getting in to. It's an old bungalow style house built in 1944 that needs a lot of fixin', but we couldn't find the same square footage for the price. I guess we'll be in renovating mode for awhile now, but in the end it will be worth it.

 

Blessings,

Lucinda

[Peek a Boo]

I checked own...but of course I really mean I'm in the process of owning. My dream is to be mortgage free. 9 more years!!!! Earlier if possible.

 

Oh and what we 'own' is a 3 br, 2 1/2 bath, 3 car garage on one acre at the edge of a fair size city. We love our home. We do not aspire to 'move up' again even if we have the money. Instead we will add a pool, a shop, and just continue to update.

 

This is us too.

I don't really "love" our actual house but i do like the area and our friends.

4 bdr, 3 full baths, garage w/ cool workshop for dh, an acre and a half, lotsa trees by a Really Cool creek w/ high exposed banks, in a smallish town where it's easy for citizens to be involved in the political process :)

 

We have no plans to move, altho I might consider up and moving back home to San Antonio if DH found a Very Good job down there. Not likely tho. I think this is where we'll be for the next 15-20 years. We'll add on and update as we see the need/ have the availability.

[caitlinsmom]

We own. 1200 sqft 2 bed 1 bath on .5 acre. Its wonderful and I love my little house. When we sell this and move to ME we will buy small again although we do desperatly want 3 beds.

[TXMomof4]

We rent a 4 bdrm home in a great neighborhood. When dh joined the military and we discovered the National Guard is definately NOT the NoGos anymore, we sold our home and started renting. I'm really not sure I want to buy anytime soon. I like not being tied to a home. If he goes active duty, we're free to move. If we want a change of scenery, we're free to move. If the air conditioner goes out, I don't have to replace it. Leak under the house, not my problem!

[5kidsforME]

Just a poll - if you want to say 'what' you rent or own, that's up to you.:001_smile:

 

 

Edit: hmm, my wording sounds funny on the 'rent' option... by "your own place", I just mean the normal basic renting situation.

 

Well I guess we own, but in reality we won't REALLY own for another 10 years or so. ;)

[Parrothead]

I had to say other. We own a house in Montana that we can't get rid of and are renting here in Maine.

[kat19]

We rent a 3 bedroom house on a very busy street.

The kids can't go outside much to play b/c of it.

We live a block away from a park, but I don't let them go there themselves b/c there is a bar right across the street.

 

I would love to move, but can't find anything else to rent right now.

[Valerie in Chicago]

Renting a great place in a great neighborhood with a fantastic landlord -- we're the lower-level apt of a two-flat. We live in a neighborhood that we could not afford to buy in. We don't know when we'll ever buy. We couldn't afford to buy an apt this nice. Plus, we look at prices in the city and think, "we'll never get our money back on THAT price." Finally, not owning allows us to have money for investing in the stock market. DH recently took $30,000 and turned it into $100,000. If that money was tied up in a house, we wouldn't have had the cash to invest.

[Brenda in FL]

Voted other as well - We will rent in GA, but we are still keeping our FL home which we own and will rent it.

[Lolly]

Voted other. We own a home, but live in fil's house about a block away. Don't think we have official ownership of it as of now, but will have at some point. We've discussed selling our house, but with the market what it is don't feel inclined to act. Plus, we aren't sure we hadn't rather live in our old house once fil is not around anymore. Add to that that dc often go over there to escape when fil is not in a good mood. And, we don't have anywhere in fil's house to put OUR stuff. So, we own but only use it for escape purposes. My parents love having their own house when they come to visit.