I mean these days when I look at a university kid I just assume "wealthy parents" with what university costs.

You pay a mortgage, just not your own.

I'm just waiting for people to start filling the streets

FSM blesses me with low cost noodles every night. May he bless you my brother or sister. R'amen 🙏

Step 1: Be attractive. Step 2: If not attractive, rent Face/Off and take notes. Stalk attractive person and swap faces with them when they aren't looking. Step 3: Free rent.

Seriously so good all the way through

Property ownership is the clearest path for generational wealth. It may suck to own, but you are building an asset and you can hand it off to future generations to have a head start with.

It's a broken system, I am not advocating for it as a good system, but it's the primary reason to own a home.

The only hobbies I actually enjoy require space: gardening and lapidary "arts" (gem/stone cutting). I can't buy equipment because I don't have the space to store them and having to move every 2-3 years is not only very difficult when you have more stuff but also really damn expensive.

So there's that, and there's retirement. Having set expenses (aside from taxes) is super important and you'll never have that with renting when you're retired.

Then again who am I kidding, I'm 38 and working in a factory. My retirement will be whenever I decide to buy a gun lol

Especially if you aren't financially that well off or on a good career track, I think it's really appealing just for the stability it affords. My current landlord has been a pretty good guy for us, but if I owned my apartment rather than renting, I wouldn't have to worry that I'll suddenly need to pay a ton more money if he dies and his kids decide to jack up the rent, or worse, having to uproot my life entirely and move out because of someone else's whims.

You don't have to go all the way to renovating before you see the advantages of homeownership. It shows up even in much smaller home improvements.

A small example: a few years ago my refrigerator broke, and the technician said it's behind repair. My landlord had to buy a new one, and of course he picked a cheap model.

If I was an homeowning instead of renting, I would have bought a much better refrigerator at trice the cost. But I won't pay that much for an appliance I'm not going to own, and my landlord won't pay it for one he wouldn't use, so I'm stuck with a cheap and noisy refrigerator.

And this is the situation with everything that's considered a part of the house. Even if I have the money to buy nice things - I can't have them.

I feel the same way. I currently own a home, but I honestly want to sell. For me, it's mostly about the flexibility. I hate not having the flexibility to up and move if a new job opportunity presents itself or I just want to try a new place.

There's also a crap ton of expenses associated with owning beyond just the mortgage, insurance, and taxes.