/biz/ - Business & Finance

>>16834595
Thank you for this recommendation. What great insights so far!
>>16834797
She's been working 3+ years, so it's within reason. The kicker is she bought a house 13 months ago. $195K - a reasonable ranch for a single individual, albeit I thought overpriced at the time (let's pretend pic related, but on a tiny corner lot of suburbia).
Well, that's not good enough, so she wants something about 50% bigger and is paying nearly twice as much because 'wow! Look how much my house has appreciated!)
Never mind you she'll lose her ass on realtor fees, moving and closing costs, and any increase in market value is going to become a 2X expense as she moves up in price. In other words, she's drooling over listing her house for + $25K (how can a home appreciate nearly 10% in a year?!!!!), but in the meantime, the house she bought she's probably paying $50K more than she would have last year.

You and I are in the same boat, I bought around 25 as well. Been here 7 or so years and it'll be paid off next year. Bought around $150k. It's a shithole, but I'm $18K away from being 100% debt free and funneling every penny into retirement or the mortgage.
Contrast that with my sister, a kid wrapping herself up in debt for a house.
As I look back, personal real estate isn't an investment. You mitigate rent costs, but you end up hoping in the end to break even after taxes, insurance, repairs, and inflation.
>>16834820
I remember my first apartment being $600 only a decade ago.
We're getting dicked hard and have been fooled into liking it. If the new norm is $2K/mo for a roof, we're never going to thrive. The cost of living is too high.