You never really OWN a property in the US. There never comes a day when you don't have to make government payments on that property anymore. If you don't pony up every year they will seize it for payment. It's like renting but you can have a dog [licensed] and paint the bedroom purple; unless you bought in an HOA then you can't do that either.
Renting has other advantages, if the neighbors become shit and you hate the place, with 30 days notice you can pack up and go somewhere else, you're not stuck with the financial burden of a house with bad neighbors.
Believe me, even if you live out in the country there are bad neighbors. And if they too own their property they are probably never leaving, and they will piss you off for the next 30 years.
Renting may have short-term advantages but overall it's a massive burden. Which is why banks love it: they can extract MUCH more wealth from people.
Look at Germany for example: owning a house used to be something people aspired to. After decades of indoctrination it's now being seen as negative. The constant stream of "green" and "pro consumer" regulations also made sure that goal has become unattainable for most people.
Coincidentally Germans have some of the lowest personal wealth in all of Europe, especially compared to "poorer" countries like Italy. The German state might be wealthy, its people sure aren't. Renting is wealth distribution from the lower and middle classes to the upper class.
Surprisingly, here in soviet Europe the first 1500 m2 of a primary residence is tax free. The overall tax burden is over 50% for anyone making a decent wage though so it balances out.
Income tax ~20%
Social security ~15%
Employer tax ~10%
VAT ~20%
Various regulatory taxes, luxury taxes, alcohol tax, health taxes, environmental taxes, gas taxes, etc. add up to at least another 10%
Then some countries have a wealth tax too, there's inheritance tax, property tax, separate road taxes, public broadcasting taxes, private health insurance which in essence is an added tax of social security to turn your worthless universal healthcare into something that's actually usable, import taxes, special taxes to protect national production, then you have to pay for using highways. That's just from the top of my head.
Effective tax burden closer to 80%-90%
Then add another 20%-30% capital gains taxes on whatever is left over for you to invest.
There is diminishing returns on those percentages, but every dollar is also being taxed into non-existence by the time it changes five hands.
I have a dollar, I pay 30% to the government off the top. I pay sales tax when I buy something for 70 cents. The store pays 15 cents in tax, and buys 40 cents worth of goods. The distribution company pays 8 cents in tax and buys 25 cents in goods. The warehousing company pays 6 cents in tax and buys 15 cents in goods. The international shipping company pays 3 cents in tax, and buys 5 cents in goods. The local representative buys 1 cent in goods, claims he spent 4 cents, and pays 1/10th of a percent in tax.
And that doesn't account for the labor costs, and the taxes they and the employer pay, or the fact that that original dollar cost the employer 10 cents in taxes.
EDIT: My math is shitty today, but hopefully the point stands.
THIS is partly why I understood the need for brexit. Sure the paperwork and movement of goods was easier, but all the taxes still existed and worse it was taxed in EACH country.
People here in the UK still haven't learned that buying local should save you a ton of money, but even the local companies are price matching upwards for profit, rather than considering the tax chain losses they aren't suffering.
Even with real estate, as others have said, you still have to worry about property taxes, so if you can't afford to pay $1000 for toilet paper, you can bet that many of these homeowners are going to lose their property from unpaid property taxes when the value of the home increases exponentially.
Property taxes in many places can only increase x% per year. They can't simply follow the market or whatever the corrupt property appraiser deems your home is worth.
Difference is if you get pissed off with your neighbors you can sell your house and hopefully get most if not all/more money back out of it. Rent your pissing your money away. I’d take paying taxes on a house that is an asset than throwing it away in rent any day.
There is no WAY I would have anything to do with a fucking HOA. That's worse than renting, and you might as well live in a goddamn trailer park, you'll get the exact same kind of nosies and retards. They'll just have more money/better credit scores is all.
You never really OWN a property in the US. There never comes a day when you don't have to make government payments on that property anymore. If you don't pony up every year they will seize it for payment. It's like renting but you can have a dog [licensed] and paint the bedroom purple; unless you bought in an HOA then you can't do that either.
Renting has other advantages, if the neighbors become shit and you hate the place, with 30 days notice you can pack up and go somewhere else, you're not stuck with the financial burden of a house with bad neighbors.
Believe me, even if you live out in the country there are bad neighbors. And if they too own their property they are probably never leaving, and they will piss you off for the next 30 years.
Renting may have short-term advantages but overall it's a massive burden. Which is why banks love it: they can extract MUCH more wealth from people.
Look at Germany for example: owning a house used to be something people aspired to. After decades of indoctrination it's now being seen as negative. The constant stream of "green" and "pro consumer" regulations also made sure that goal has become unattainable for most people.
Coincidentally Germans have some of the lowest personal wealth in all of Europe, especially compared to "poorer" countries like Italy. The German state might be wealthy, its people sure aren't. Renting is wealth distribution from the lower and middle classes to the upper class.
Happened by design. They still hate Germans for fighting them.
Surprisingly, here in soviet Europe the first 1500 m2 of a primary residence is tax free. The overall tax burden is over 50% for anyone making a decent wage though so it balances out.
Income tax ~20%
Social security ~15%
Employer tax ~10%
VAT ~20%
Various regulatory taxes, luxury taxes, alcohol tax, health taxes, environmental taxes, gas taxes, etc. add up to at least another 10%
Then some countries have a wealth tax too, there's inheritance tax, property tax, separate road taxes, public broadcasting taxes, private health insurance which in essence is an added tax of social security to turn your worthless universal healthcare into something that's actually usable, import taxes, special taxes to protect national production, then you have to pay for using highways. That's just from the top of my head.
Effective tax burden closer to 80%-90%
Then add another 20%-30% capital gains taxes on whatever is left over for you to invest.
In the Netherlands they add the VAT on top of some of the other taxes, so you pay taxes over your taxes. Yo dawg.
There is diminishing returns on those percentages, but every dollar is also being taxed into non-existence by the time it changes five hands.
I have a dollar, I pay 30% to the government off the top. I pay sales tax when I buy something for 70 cents. The store pays 15 cents in tax, and buys 40 cents worth of goods. The distribution company pays 8 cents in tax and buys 25 cents in goods. The warehousing company pays 6 cents in tax and buys 15 cents in goods. The international shipping company pays 3 cents in tax, and buys 5 cents in goods. The local representative buys 1 cent in goods, claims he spent 4 cents, and pays 1/10th of a percent in tax.
And that doesn't account for the labor costs, and the taxes they and the employer pay, or the fact that that original dollar cost the employer 10 cents in taxes.
EDIT: My math is shitty today, but hopefully the point stands.
THIS is partly why I understood the need for brexit. Sure the paperwork and movement of goods was easier, but all the taxes still existed and worse it was taxed in EACH country.
People here in the UK still haven't learned that buying local should save you a ton of money, but even the local companies are price matching upwards for profit, rather than considering the tax chain losses they aren't suffering.
Even with real estate, as others have said, you still have to worry about property taxes, so if you can't afford to pay $1000 for toilet paper, you can bet that many of these homeowners are going to lose their property from unpaid property taxes when the value of the home increases exponentially.
Property taxes in many places can only increase x% per year. They can't simply follow the market or whatever the corrupt property appraiser deems your home is worth.
Difference is if you get pissed off with your neighbors you can sell your house and hopefully get most if not all/more money back out of it. Rent your pissing your money away. I’d take paying taxes on a house that is an asset than throwing it away in rent any day.
There is no WAY I would have anything to do with a fucking HOA. That's worse than renting, and you might as well live in a goddamn trailer park, you'll get the exact same kind of nosies and retards. They'll just have more money/better credit scores is all.