The housing market has been pretty wild lately. Have you seen those interest rates? As a result, it seems that more people are putting their dreams of owning property on hold to rent while waiting for the market to level off a bit.
Besides prohibitive costs, there are also so many OTHER reasons many people are increasingly choosing to rent long-term (or forever) — versus buy. With that in mind, I recently asked those of the BuzzFeed Community who have decided to never buy a home and plan on forever renting to share their reasons why. Here are some of them.
1. "I have no desire to ever fix anything that goes wrong. I love it being someone else’s problem! I love getting to change my entire apartment and neighborhood every few years. Literally adore it. I never, ever want to buy."
2. "My priority is to travel. It doesn’t make sense for me to invest in one place when I’m not planning on ever staying in one place for a very long time. I also don’t know where I want to settle, because I know I don’t plan on living long-term in the US. If I stop in Scotland and fall in love, or stop in Australia and don’t want to leave, I may change my mind. As it is, I haven’t found anywhere I have an interest in living for longer than a few years."
—Anonymous
3. "Cost is obviously the main reason, but I also love that I can delegate the responsibility of repairs to my landlord or real estate agent. I have ADHD, so I would completely put off the task of calling around, getting quotes, and actually scheduling the repair. But I can quickly send an email at any time (and schedule it to be actually sent at a reasonable and respectful time), and let someone else manage it."
4. "I owned a home briefly in my 20s. After a broken furnace and window in the first six months of ownership, I sold it and have rented it ever since. Being a single person who makes a median range income doesn’t qualify me for home ownership, and even if it did, I’m not a fan of the upkeep and repairs and taxes. Not to mention the crazy interest rates and wildly fluctuating home values."
5. "I don't know that I'll rent forever if I had a choice, but I'm a broke-ass millennial. I'd love a house to not share walls anymore, but there are advantages to renting, mainly you don't pay for anything that breaks. When I first moved in, landscapers hit a rock that broke my third-floor window, and the complex replaced it. My air conditioner broke two years in a row. My fridge went out at just over three years of being there. It was only six years old, and they brought me a new one. My toilet wouldn't stop running, their attempted flapper repair failed, and they brought me a new toilet. When that low-flow toilet clogged, I didn't pay for a plumber. All of that happened in quick succession, so imagine everything I'd have had to pay for! Plus, they had surveillance everywhere so it was safer as a solo female."
6. "We live in one of the top places in the country. It’s consistently voted one of the top places to live. We rent a really cute house in the prime spot of town. We have bars, restaurants, shopping, and walking trails all around us. We would buy here in a heartbeat, but nothing ever comes up for sale, and when it does, it’s over a million dollars. We love living here, and if something goes wrong, the landlord takes care of it. All of our friends love coming over and hanging out on our awesome front porch."
—Anonymous
7. "The flexibility of location is why I rent. With more remote-only jobs, you can now work in different places, either in the country or outside the country, and become a full digital nomad. You can move to places with low cost of living, low taxes and save money."
8. "I'll rent versus buying because of the overall cost. First, you have the interest which is tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars — which is all you pay for the first several years, which means you’ll be upside-down for a long time. Then, some people seem to forget you need to put at least 2% aside for a maintenance fund because something WILL go wrong. Then, you need to have all of the proper insurance to keep yourself covered and hope the insurance company doesn’t find a loophole when the time comes (oh, and they will try VERY hard to find one). Then, you’ll always have the property tax to pay. And of course, the mortgage which requires a 30-odd year commitment which is, like, half of your adult life (sure, you can resell it, but your actual profits after subtracting all the money you spent maintaining it will be smaller than you think). Meanwhile, the thing you’ve put so much money into is slowly rotting away."
"Right now, I save thousands a year by renting alone (even after calculating the tax savings of buying a home here), let alone the money I don’t have to put aside for everything else. You can make a solid 2%+ every year by putting money into an index fund, 3-4% a year by putting money into a high-yield savings account, and 3-6% if the company matches into a 401k. One side definitely looks better than the other to me."
—Anonymous
9. "I am not a handy person by any means, and all my homeowner friends get pride out of doing home projects that sound stressful to me. I currently rent a single family home in a city with my husband and dog, and we love our landlords. They are super responsive anytime anything needs repairs or adjustments. Maybe one day, we would approach them about buying the house we’re in, but for now, I’m happy with our setup and not having to be responsible for every little thing that may break or go wrong. Our rent on this home is about the same price that we would pay for renting an apartment so it’s definitely a win-win. If we were in an apartment rather than having a whole home to ourselves, I might feel differently."
10. "I'm in my early 40s and still renting. The simple reason is that I moved around a lot because of jobs. I have never felt settled in a place or job to buy a house. It's something I'm slowly coming around to now, but the thought of being anchored down terrifies me. What if the house needs too many repairs? What if the neighbors are crap? What if I hate my job?"
—Anonymous
11. "I bought a house in 2003, and the crisis of 2008 destroyed any chance of having equity. Combining typical maintenance costs with an upside-down mortgage was untenable. I let the house go into foreclosure, and I've rented ever since. Even when my income passed over $200k annually, I continue to rent. I just started renting houses instead of apartments. I'm not responsible for the house. The gas lines. The sewer. The appliances. If anything breaks, someone else is responsible. I rent to avoid the heartbreak of a down market and the absurd cost to maintain it. When I'm ready to leave, to move on, to chase an opportunity, I'm not weighed down by the obligation of a 30-year mortgage. I don't have to find a buyer. I don't care about projecting curb appeal. I just leave. It's glorious. I'm liquid and free, and homeowners are not."
—Anonymous
12. "We are a military family and did long-term rentals until our current assignment. We're getting ready to move again, but this time, we had to sell a house, which, thankfully, we did. Except now, we are homeless for the last six weeks of the school year. Trying to juggle the military moving us, managing the kids, full-time job transition, pets, AND finding a new place to live in another state every few years is hard enough without also being in limbo for an extra month and a half. At our next (and hopefully last) assignment, we will be going back to a long-term rental and will not buy again until we are somewhere we plan to stay for good."
13. "When I got divorced, I learned nothing is guaranteed. I decided I would rather spend my money on vacations, traveling, and creating fantastic memories with my daughter instead of being tied down to a house, the work that comes with it, and the money. The memories you take with you, not the house. When I am gone, she will still have the memories, and she can always buy her own house if she wants one, wherever she wants to live."
—Anonymous
14. "I am living in Bellingham, Washington. I make $140k a year as an engineer. I could afford a home here but am a forever renter for a few reasons. I grew up in semi-rural Pennsylvania so the house prices here are hard for me to understand. You'll pay half a million dollars for 900 square feet and you won't even like the place. That's over $3k a month for a mortgage when I have been renting larger, nicer places with friends for $700-$900 a month. The math says no. My more mobile life (moving states every 3-5 years) also makes it so being tied to a place for, reasonably, a decade wouldn't make sense in closing costs and realtor fees. I am also a social person so having roommates is a bonus, not a drawback. I love looking at Zillow and fantasizing as much as the next person, but the flexibility, cheapness, and social aspect of renting just makes sense right now. If and when I have a family, that might change, but for now, it's not a hard decision."
15. "For me, it's about time and convenience. I grew up in a lower-middle-class family in a fixer-upper-type house. My dad spent all his free time fixing whatever was broken, painting, mowing, shoveling snow, etc. My sister bought a house, and it's the exact same thing. They also have to buy and maintain a garage full of tools to do the chores they don't want to do in the first place. It's also easier to budget. True, I'm not building equity, and maintenance is baked into the rent, but when I need a new roof or the furnace suddenly goes out, I'm not the one who has to come up with $7,500 overnight. It's just worth the freedom from spending all my time doing chores I don't want to do and constant worry about the next major expense for me to forgo equity. If that's 'throwing money away,' then sign me up."
—Will, 36