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The value of a paid off home is not the equity, that’s just numbers on a paper until you die and your heirs sell. The value is in living for peanuts for the rest of your life.

My house is paid off. My monthly housing costs are $735 for property tax that can’t increase more than 2% year due to California law. My neighbor two doors down with the same floor plan rents for $6500/month. That difference will only increase for the next 40 (I hope) years until I die.

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proudblond@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Even my not-paid-off house is saving me money, since rent has continued increasing and my mortgage has not. I’d probably be paying at least twice in rent for this house as what my mortgage payment is. Bought it 12 years ago.

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- roscoe@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  That too, last year before I finished my mortgage my neighbor was paying week over double my mortgage, property taxes, and maintenance costs combined.
  
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porkloin@lemmy.world ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Yeah I don’t think people realize that the biggest advantage of owning is to lock yourself into a stable housing cost. Even before it’s paid off, you lock in a more or less stable monthly housing bill. Maintenance sucks, big ticket repairs suck. But you’re always going to need somewhere to live.

I bought a place ten years ago, and if I was renting the same house today it would be about double the mortgage. Sure, I highly doubt that doubling will happen again in another ten years. But I doubt even more that we will ever see the prices back at 2015 level.

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- roscoe@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Maintenance cost such, but even that has a silver lining when you own. It’s yours. When your fridge breaks in a rental you’re not out any money, but they just bring by another jank landlord special. I redid my kitchen with Thermador, not the top of the top, but pretty far up there. That cost quite a bit but it’s mine and my kitchen is far better than anything I had renting.
  
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