Do you own your home? Do you wish you did?

I'm asking the question because of the financial benefits that can be had buy investing $500,000 rather than putting it into your property.
I've heard rich people don't own anything. They let the banks own assets to keep the cash invested in securities, funds, business ventures etc.

Without getting personal, I'm asking if you would rather make money on funds that you could put into a home.
We love not having a mortgage but I can't shake the fact that we could double (if properly invested) every 5-7 years.
On the other hand, real estate has done very well but the only way you can have access to the money is by selling the home or by taking out a mortgage.

Tough decisions.
Thanks for your opinions.
Many rich people got rich through their real estate investments. Buying a home is a real estate investment. I have bought each home that I have lived in and each time the return on investment far surpassed the amount of gain I could have had in other investment strategies. Just now I have bought a home and sold a home and the strategy remains. My opinion is buy the home. And buy it with cash. That is what I have been successful doing. Mortgages take the money from you and make money for others.
 
We own, no mortgage, paid cash. Up here in the crazy Canadian housing market (who knows when the bubble will burst) house prices have been going up at insane rates for way longer than I anticipated. Prices up 30-40% in the last year or so. When things are normal it might make more economic sense to rent however for someone like me with a lab and a machine shop in the basement renting is not a practical option.

About 3 years ago the prices in Toronto (where we were living) were growing at a crazy rate, a house that I paid $200k for was selling for over $1M 15 years later with most of that appreciation in the last few years.

we noticed that most the sales were to foreign buyers and they were leaving the houses vacant. We were planning to move to another city in a couple of years and thought we should cash out while the prices were so high. We spoke to an agent and she told us she could likely get us an “investment buyer” that would allow us to continue living in the house for reduced rent. So wiithin days we had an offer of 1.65M, with the option to rent for $1 per month for up to 3 years but we we’re responsible for lawn maintenance. We took the deal, stayed for almost 3 years, happily cutting the grass while are new landlord paid the taxes, replaced the furnace etc. Apparently our landlord purchased over 100 houses in the Toronto area within a year or so.

With cash in the bank and time on our side we were able to research neighbourhoods in the city we were moving to and find an ideal house, we put letters at about 10 houses that were not actually for sale and ended up doing a private sale on one of them. The owners were both lawyers so they were comfortable not using an agent, they were also quite informed about actual selling prices so the negotiations were short and easy. This is the second house we purchased without an agent.

When this crazy housing market blows up it’s going to be really really bad.
 
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Investment buyers are destroying things.
They make it so that some communities are emptying out.
People sell for the deal, and no one comes in.. you had a great deal where you could live there. Many don't do that.
I saw a road where 30 houses were empty, and one couple was left.. That's just crazy.

I don't know what they are thinking.. A lot of the investors are not even from the same country, the shell company they set up is.

I don't know where this is going, but it can't be good.
 
My wife and I have rented one apartment since 1978. Crazy, you think? Yes, for sure, almost everywhere but where we live, which is in Greenwich Village in New York City. We moved to NYC in 1978, took this nice 2 bedroom apartment at the edge of what we could afford then, and since then, thanks to NYC's rent control rules, it has done nothing but get relatively, and progressively, cheaper than any other option. Purchase prices anywhere we wanted to live have always far outstripped our means, and we have never been willing to leave an area we love just to own. Our rent, in 43 years, is now 3.5 times it was then, but is around 1/3 of market rent for a similar apartment in one of America's most desirable locations and is far cheaper than purchasing or paying property taxes directly. This situation has enabled both of us to have long careers in the nonprofit arenas and to put two daughters through private colleges without financial aid or loans, and for us to have our assets managed professionally with a lot greater flexibility than being tied up in real property. And, with the girls long gone but now living within a half hour subway ride in Queens, their childhood bedroom is now my shop!

Happy new year, everyone, be well!
Tim
 
I have always told the wife that I would rather live in a trailer house in the middle of the woods than rent anything. I was 28 when we bought our first house. It wasn't much of a house, but it was where we raised our daughters and it became home. 15 years later we built just a few miles away from our first house and moved up to 1.5acres (woohoo! LOL). In 2019 we bought 22 acres on a large-ish river and built our dream home (and my dream shop). If I sold it today, it would be worth at least $200k more than what I built it for. I will be making payments on this house for 11 more years, but I don't care because the interest rate is so low.
There is more to life than seeing how much money you have at the end. I lost my brother when he was 58 and a good friend when he turned 64. I nearly got killed in 2020 from a tree falling on me. I am going to be fiscally responsible, but I am also going to enjoy my life because there is no guarantee that I will be here tomorrow.

EDIT: The not renting was not directed at you Tim at all, it's just that my post is below yours... LOL.
 
Neil, I put my story there because I enjoy the diversity on this board, never better manifest by the range of our stories!

all best,
Tim
 
Neil, I put my story there because I enjoy the diversity on this board, never better manifest by the range of our stories!

all best,
Tim

Absolutely!

Happy New Year!
 
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