Expenses do not inform revenue, which is contrary to what the other guy is de facto claiming in his arguments. Landlords compete in a non-vacuum marketplace. Price is a function of what the market is willing to bear.

It’s simply false that rent will “always” go up. Inflation adjusted rents (and even nominal rents) are able to move in two directions. $3K/yr in ownership expense surely is factoring for inflation, no? There’s no mention of improvements. A comparable rental over time would have improvements. I also noticed that you…

1) Misses the point entirely. This is not always a given, and can only be considered on an individual basis with potential of many variables, for which a simple meme such as x is y “throwing money away” cannot account for.

The whole thing is an insidious sales tactic created by the real estate industry to divert potential buyers’ attention away from doing detailed analysis. Paying for shelter is consumption, whether renting or “owning.” If you have to live somewhere, you have to pay for it. At the end of the day it comes down to wants…

More like a handout to lenders as it’s an indirect subsidy to their business.

Not to mention that interest portion of payments decreases over time, thereby lessoning the potential subsidy also over time.

No mention of transaction costs when selling. Far too many people underestimate the likelihood that they will move and sell after several years.

This is simply one of those things learned through experience. There is no free ride. The inexperienced haven’t yet realized this.

No, the landlord cannot increase the rent to “whatever they want” and expect to find someone willing to pay. Landlords are in competition with each other, so the market sets the price. Too much focus is placed on the potentially fixed cost of borrowing money to purchase a house. Taxes, insurance, maintenance, repair,…

You can’t claim the standard deduction plus itemized expenses, you have to choose one or the other when filing.

Housing industry shills and cheerleaders never include the two caveats of you must be able to itemize more than the standard deduction to realize a benefit and the benefit is only net of the standard deduction. Low interest rates compound this issue because less of the cost of ownership is subsidized through…