I live in an apartment, and I have all those amenities. In my part of the world, most apartments have a pool and gym. The condos have nicer pools and gyms, of course.
Yep - current worth, if anything the figures I gave are a little bit low.
Current location = Singapore
It is my considered opinion that there should be a constitutional amendment requiring the developer of any apartment or condo complex to live in the shittiest unit for at least two years. And I mean live as in sleep there. Violators would be required to donate their entire profit to charity. Maybe then we would see a touch of SOUNDPROOFING!!!
As you may have noticed, I’d rather live in a quiet banana crate than a noisy condo.
I really would get nervous living in a ground floor apartment. Everybody can see into your house as they walk into their own apartment. So you look in, and you see expensive big-screen TVs, and receivers, and gaming systems, and all of the other accoutrements people put in their house. You either end up closing your curtains all of the time or being worried about your possessions.
The best type of apartment to live in, IMO, is on the second floor of a two-story building. But then yes, you can’t jump up and down or anything.
And again, to brazil84 I’m not saying buying isn’t good for some people…but it’s not and shouldn’t be the ONLY option, is all I wanted to point out.
Mortgage interest is tax deductible and my mortgage + condo fee is less than what I’d be paying for rent.
The market value for my condo has doubled over the past decade; it had even tripled before the bubble burst.
And again… it’s not that people who choose to rent don’t *understand *the financial benefits of home ownership. We just have different priorities.
We renters are very pleased for you homeowners that it’s working out so well for you. Now please stop treating us like idiots. Yes, it’s possible that my rent will jump 10% at some point (unlikely in my particular situation, but possible). It’s even more likely that several of you evangelists have adjustable-rate mortgages, and yet I refrain from pointing and laughing, and telling you how foolish you are for choosing to live on the edge of that particular precipice.
Clearly, lots of people go about buying a house intelligently. But lots more do it because they’re under the mistaken impression that they’re not really “grownup” until they do, or the even more mistaken impression that it’s a fail-safe investment. If you get foreclosed on, it’s not really a better financial position to be in than having rented for the past ten years, is it?
Oh, I still love you. Enough so that I’m moving in next week. Please clean out the guest room.
That’s dirt cheap. I don’t think I could find anything – house or apartment – for that low anywhere in this state. And if I wanted a place with a pool and a gym, I’d be paying close to $2000.
A lot of people who got interest-only or teaser rate mortgages are being told their mortgage payment is being jacked up, generally more than 10%.
I was reminded last night why I sometimes miss renting. The toilet in our basement is leaking. When I was renting, I’d call the complex office, and expect it to be dealt with in a timely fashion at no charge to me. That’s not how it works when you’re a homeowner 
There are good points to being a homeowner, of course. I can get a dog or another cat if I want, and I have a lot more freedom to change stuff I don’t like about the house. (I still can’t do those things without consulting with anybody, because Mr. Neville and I are about as handy as the stereotype says two theoretical astrophysicists ought to be, so we don’t do a lot of do-it-yourself work)
No guest room, but you’re welcome to stay on the futon in the living room.
Apartments in Albany are decent prices. Why, when I was living downtown, years ago, we were paying $400 for a three bedroom top story apartment. Of course, it was downtown, and we had a HORRIBLE neighbor, but still.
Then again, I probably make a fraction of what you do, so I guess it evens out?
Our old apartment was $650 and it had a pool, though no gym. No gyms in apartments around here, really.
This. I bought a condo above a guy I suspect was alcoholic. He complained about the treadmill. I got rid of the treadmill. Then, the complaints increased in frequency, and when he started banging the ceiling when I was sleeping, I got a restraining order. Messy situation all around. It’s -worse- with condos because the sense of entitlement grows 100x worse on both sides since since they’re owners.
I agree that owning has a lot of traps for the unwary. Personally, I got a traditional 30 year fixed rate mortgage. So far, I’m reasonably happy with it.
I’m glad that you got good service. I recall a lot of unpleasantness over repairs from my renting days. For example, the hot water going out and having to wait for the better part of a week for service to be restored because the landlord was too cheap to pay the extra premium for emergency service.
From an economic perspective, one could argue that repairs are not really free for most renters; that the cost of repair is factored into one’s rent.
So far, I agree.
Yes. We all know that. In my state, my rent is tax-deductible to an extent, which, in my state, tends to eliminate that difference between renting and buying. Your mileage may vary, and probably does.
Actually, getting foreclosed is worse than having rented for 10 years. Some claim it’s worse than bankruptcy.
It’s also possible for a renter, particularly one on a month-to-month lease, to be evicted on short notice. I bought a condo (with a fixed-rate mortgage) so I wouldn’t have to go through that again.
That’s true. It’s also true that your building could be sold and the condo fees could skyrocket (hell, the condo fees could skyrocket for any reason or none). It’s also true that either of our buildings could burn down. Life is full of risks.
We have a 30-year fixed, too. I’m very glad we do.
Where we lived before, in the Bay Area, that just wouldn’t have been an option. A new condo complex was being built a few blocks from our apartment. They had condos similar to our apartment (1000 sf, 2br/2ba). They were selling for $1 million. I used an online mortgage calculator, and found that our rent was roughly equivalent to a 30-year fixed mortgage for $450,000. We would have been paying more than twice as much for the same thing if we had bought.
I recently moved from an apartment to a house. The thing I miss most is the privacy. When I lived in an apartment, I never saw my neighbours, and I could come and go, and spend time on my balcony, without any interaction with anybody. (And those were nice second-story apts with lots of neighbours around.) Now, any time I open my front door (or, for that matter, spend time in my living room with the curtains open), whatever I’m doing becomes my neighbours’ business.
The other thing is maintenance. I hate it. I’m familiar enough with tenant law to know how to deal with negligent landlords and I’m so much happier when necessary home repairs are someone else’s problem. I can’t imagine a bigger nightmare than a pipe bursting under my front yard or a tree falling on my house or some other massive, expensive problem that needs to be dealt with RIGHT NOW.
To my mind, the main emotional issue between home ownership vs. renting is - which type of freedom appeals to you more:
Home ownership - you can do pretty well anything (within your community’s laws and bylaws) to your own property. Want to erect a purple gazebo in your back yard? Go ahead. The place is yours do do with as you please (as long as you have no HOA - those are the tools of the devil!)
Renting - you get the urge to move to Alaska, you go. No pesky selling your house to go through with. You are free of the burdens of owning something that locks you to one spot.
The financial differences vary from place to place and time to time.
It really sucks if you want to grow pot.