Owning a home has rarely been this much more expensive than renting

As a homeowner what weighs me down most is insurance, by a large margin. It keeps increasing while the coverage decreases. It's a huge racket in my opinion

On paper, owning a home is almost always more expensive than renting — about 14% more, on average, after factoring in expenses like insurance, taxes, and upkeep.

I'd be interested in seeing how they arrived at the 14% number.

When I bought my first home a couple of decades ago I moved out of my 1 bedroom apartment which I was paying a monthly rent of $700/month into a small starter home with a mortgage of $1000/month. 20 years later that exact same apartment rents for $1350/month. All of the years I lived there my house payment never rose higher than the $1000/month mortgage payment while the rent on the apartment apparently continued to increase year over year. Meanwhile I ended up selling the starter home for $110,000 than my purchase prices nearly 20 years ago.

So is their 14% number just calculated on the first month of each (renting vs buying)?

Do they mean "buying" instead of "owning"?

I am confused, my thought process went like this:

So it's more expensive to own then rent?

Unless you own it and rent it out to others?

Nobody would be a landlord if a dwelling cost more to maintain then to rent out.

So something doesn't add up.

I might still not understand but... Landlords have to pay insurance as well. Why would they be the exception. They have all the same costs and also want to make a profit. How can rent be cheaper then?

Highly dependent on where one lives I guess. My friend just rented a new apartment and his rent is over double what my mortage payments are. That's also money he is never getting back where as in my case my house is paid in about 15 years after which I own the damn thing and the monthly mortage payment drops off entirely. Excluding mortage, the montly cost of owning my house is 275€ which includes water and electricity.

Cost of materials and demand for contractors. Even if you DIY it, everything is 3x as expensive as it was before covid. The price of lumber never really went back to where it was before covid. Its clearly price gouging.

This ignores the difference after 5-10 years. Rent keeps going up.

We livin in a new gilded age, bruh.

By February, I will have put $100k into a house in stuff that's nearly invisible - replace fence, repair leaking pool equipment, stabilize foundation, repair plumbing, and replace exterior 'wood' that was really watelogged mdf. My mom paid $220k 11 years ago. I've inherited it - and the $130k mortgage balance. My son is helping me by living there and covering the mortgage payment and I'm pulling money out of retirement to make repairs. It would likely take another $100k to update the 1980s kitchen, bathrooms, electrical, and 20 yr old hvac. Oh yeah, plus $10k/yr in taxes and insurance! Anyone want to buy a house?

The article talks a lot about mortgages. How does the math work if you pay in full at the time of purchase?

Yeah, but, after X years you own your house.

After X years of renting, you got nothing.

My house is paid for so I’m gonna say nope - even with maintenance and taxes, etc

Its funny because the conventional wisdom is that rent is “throwing money away”

Yeah, if you bought recently, you’re a fucking moron lol