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There’s a reason I made the decision to buy a home years ago rather than rent one. I knew I wanted to have kids, and I knew that in that scenario, I’d be most comfortable in a detached home with multiple bedrooms and bathrooms and a yard.
It’s hard to find an affordable rental in my area that meets that set of criteria. Sure, you can rent an apartment or townhouse in my neck of the woods without a problem. But there just aren’t all that many standalone, detached homes available for rent, so buying one of my own seemed inevitable.
Now I will say that there are benefits to owning a home, such as getting a tax break on my mortgage loan interest and not having to follow a landlord’s rules. And as the proud owner of a 75-pound dog, I’m really happy I didn’t have to ask anyone’s permission before welcoming him into my home.
But still, there are times when I just plain hate being a homeowner. Here are the top three things that bug me the most.
1. Unexpected repairs, even when you’ve done the maintenance
My husband and I are generally pretty good about doing maintenance on our home, and our house isn’t all that old. Despite that, we frequently find ourselves dipping into our savings account to cover unexpected home repairs.
Now thankfully, we have emergency savings to raid for home repairs, and we also factor several thousand dollars a year into our budget for home repair purposes. Recent data from All Star Home found that nearly 25% of homeowners don’t have the ability to cover a $1,000 home repair emergency, so thankfully, we’re in a different boat. But it still stinks having to pull money out of our savings when things break for no good reason.
2. Rising property taxes
Property taxes are a known expense of homeownership. But what’s annoying is that they have the potential to rise — a lot — over time.
First of all, as the value of your home rises naturally with time, your property tax bill can follow suit. But also, improving your home has the potential to raise your property taxes so that you’re not just paying for renovations, but also, a higher property tax bill.
Now maybe it’s me, but I don’t think it’s fair to charge me extra in property tax form for spending my hard-earned money to make my home more comfortable or usable. But clearly, my local tax assessor feels very differently.
3. The fact that you can never shake housing costs, even once your mortgage is paid off
Many people look forward to the day when they can own their homes outright. But I don’t think I’ll ever feel that way, even if my mortgage is paid off.
That’s because there will always be the expense of property taxes hanging over my head. So even if I’m not sending money to a loan servicer month after month, I’ll still owe my township thousands of dollars a year.
There are certainly perks to being a homeowner. But there are also times when I wish I could just rent a home instead. Granted, in that situation, I wouldn’t be able to build equity in a place of my own. But the savings I’d reap on home repairs alone would potentially be worth it.
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