Renters over 30, what is holding you back from buying a house?

I couldn’t clean a large house every day.

My husband and I have been renting for the past 6 years after owning a home for 18 years. We are both 45.

We don’t have money for a down payment, but we also don’t plan to live in the town we live in for the rest of our lives. We like the idea of being able to move easily if we want to. My father is 82 and has been trying to sell his home for over a year. The market where we live is terrible. He’s stuck in Illinois while dreaming of living in the Southwest.

There’s also no guarantee that your job is safe. The largest employer in our area is making major cutbacks and people who have worked for this company for decades are losing their jobs. My sister is one of these people. She gave them 22 years of her life. Now at age 51 she has to sell her home and move out of state for a new job. Hopefully she’ll have better luck than our father when she tries to sell her house.

I’ve always thought homes were way way way overvalued, by 2–10x. I wouldn’t want that to correct itself after I got a home loan for a market price astronomically more than I have. Also it is complex and the homes I could afford I generally would not want, and I hate doing financial things. However I admit that it can be cheaper than renting and lead to much more value in the long run, so would have been a good idea in theory. Oh but also mostly the women I was with made the situation seem like home buying wasn’t an option at the time, at least enough for me to not have seriously looked into it.

Those are the reasons you asked about.

However with what I know now, I would say not much of that adds up to a good reason to rent in general, if a house can be afforded. As long as payments are doable and so on and the circumstances are appropriate, I’d say it is a good idea to look into.

Houses are not really cheaper than apartments in the long run, when you factor in things like maintenance and renovations. I need only a small space, and don’t want to be locked into specific neighbours permanently. I’m not sure I’ll be living in the same city for more than a few years. I expect my income to vary widely over the next few years, so want to be able to adjust my monthly housing fees at will.

I’ve never really wanted a house. I understand that in some regions, there is a difference in how people are perceived based on whether they own property or not, but it isn’t like that here. Renters have rights, and we very commonly paint and renovate our apartments as if we owned them. It doesn’t feel like living in someone else’s space.

I’ll doubt I will ever be able to afford to buy a house in Los Angeles. Even so, I have no desire to own a house. Too big of a hassle.

We don’t have the money for a down payment. Nor would we have the money to take care of any repairs or upkeep of the property.

My daughter owns a house she rents out. The renter owned a house, but lost it in the mortgage crisis.

I don’t currently have enough money for a down payment, but the bigger problem are housing costs. The median house costs $750,000 in Honolulu.

F/28 here and my partner is M/35. As NYC renters with excellent credit, the only thing holding us back is that we’re not Trust Fund Babies with 100–200K just hanging out for a down payment.

Every house I owned has been a damned money pit, a huge time hog and in two cases was one of the unspoken causes of the divorce.

I would have been better served by putting the equivalent money in a 10% growth fund.

I myself don’t have any money for a down payment, nor can I afford to pay movers right now (and I have no strong muscular friends who can help me.) It kills me, because my rent is pretty high, and I’d rather be pouring my monthly payments into a house/townhouse payment. I’m also pretty daunted by the potential to have unexpected repair expenses.