The Advantages of Renting an Apartment Vs. Owning a Home
Posted on August 24, 2007
Filed Under Apartment Living | 10 Comments
You’ve probably heard this before: if you’re making a monthly rent payment, as opposed to a monthly mortgage payment, you’re essentially throwing your money away. Well, as common as the saying is, it’s not necessarily true – in many situations, it’s actually much more advantageous to rent an apartment rather than own a home. Here’s why:
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It’s Easy
Compared to owning a home, living in an apartment rental is incredibly easy. Why do the work yourself when you can enjoy the following benefits:
· Dedicated property and maintenance staff to call if anything goes wrong
· No back-breaking snow shoveling, lawn maintenance or pool/sauna care
· One single monthly rent cheque usually pays for everything (instead of several separate bills and fees when you own a house or a condo)
You Get More for Your Money
Believe it or not, you can usually rent an apartment or house for much less than the cost of buying it – especially if you live in a larger city. And if you want to be right downtown, renting is almost always more affordable than owning a condo (and you get a lot more living space, as well, as downtown apartments are usually much larger than downtown condos).
As well, apartment renters don’t have to come up with the thousands of dollars in down payments, closing costs and fees for things such as building inspections, legal counsel, land transfer taxes and insurance.
And this doesn’t even factor in the cost of borrowing – in the first five years of ownership, most mortgage payments are applied only to the interest, not the capital. This is money that you won’t get back when you sell your home (and you’ll still have all the hassles and extra costs of putting your house on the market).
That Tax Break is Not Guaranteed
Getting a big tax break is supposed to be one of the greatest advantages of owning a home – but you can’t always rely on getting this break. If your annual mortgage interest payment, plus any other deductions you are entitled to, isn’t greater than your standard tax deductions, you will not receive any tax benefit from owning a house.
If you rent an apartment, however, you’ll always receive some form of tax relief, as a large portion of your rent is tax deductible every year.
Maximum Flexibility
Renting provides an enormous amount of flexibility. You can pack up and leave immediately at the end of your lease (which can be monthly or yearly, whatever best suits your lifestyle) – there’s no waiting to sell and no agonizing about the housing market before you move. For many people, the freedom to live where you want and when you want is a huge benefit that simply cannot be overlooked.
Minimum Risk
For homeowners, the stakes are enormously high should their finances crumble. When they can’t pay the mortgage, the lender has great leverage – the house and all the equity invested in it could be in jeopardy. That’s not to say there aren’t consequences if a tenant can’t pay the rent – but the financial devastation that comes with losing your home is far greater than being evicted from your apartment.
In addition, there are several social service programs that are run by all levels of government to help people in need pay their rent so they won’t be evicted. Are the banks as lenient or supportive when it comes time to pay the mortgage?
Ultimately, making the decision to either rent an apartment or buy a home involves much more than simply comparing rental rates, mortgage payments, lease lengths and tax breaks. It’s a combination of all of the personal circumstances happening in your life – both now and several years down the road.
Watch the video related to downtown apartment living
These are perhaps the best deal for the money on an urban downtown loft. Gorgeous, exposed brick, large kitchens, exposed duct work, tall ceilings. Wonderful community, many artistic and famous people live here, great coffee shop and restaurant and shops in the building!
Help answer the question about downtown apartment living
Would you rather live in an apartment with 12 people downtown or in a house by yourself in the suburbs?by suburbs i mean it takes at least 45 mins to get to downtown by car or longer by bus/train. The apartment would have 2 bedrooms only.
actually im living with a few other guys in the living room couch while the rest in the rooms bunnks
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10 Responses to “The Advantages of Renting an Apartment Vs. Owning a Home”
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This place is a dump. Very old and run down. For the same price, or even, cheaper, you can get something brand new with better views right across the street – I did!
Modern apartment buildings have secure parking usually underground,. Older type buildings are called unit blocks and generally have carports for parking at the back of the buildings.
have a look at this real estate site to give you an idea…if renting prices are per week.
http://www.domain.com.au/Public/SearchResults.aspx?mode=rent&Refine=1&state=NSW&areas=Sydney+City&sub=Sydney&pcodes=2000&ssubs=1&displmap=0&areato=2147483647&from=0&to=2147483647&proptypes=&ptdes=All%20Property%20Types&searchterm=sydney
Depends on how high up you are and what type of building it is. The higher up you are, the less noise and commotion you hear. That's if you have a balcony. There are quite a few dwelling downtown that don't have balconies. For instance, you could live in the John Hancock building. No balconies and no noise, but a great view. And some of the people there are so high up in the sky that it could be raining on the street below and they don't know it until they get downstairs. But again, it depends on the building and how high up you are.
As for cost, yes, everything is a big more expensive downtown. The stores charge more because they figure you can afford it if you can liv downtown. True, you can be steps away from all of the "action", but if you want to go somewhere quiet you have to drive quite a ways away. There are lots of other neighborhoods in Chicago where you can just walk to a quiet park in a matter of minutes.
Finally, make sure the area you're looking at is "downtown". Lots of people who are unfamiliar with the city assume that places like Wrigleyville is "downtown". It's not. It may look like it on a map or have a lot of tall condos, but it's not officially "downtown". Also, there are a lot of condos in the south Loop which is also downtown, but it's a totally different atmosphere than the condos and apartments right in the center of downtown. Give us the approximate area you're talking about and we can tell you better what goes on there,
Bethesda is much more expense then rockville. Bethesda is a very nice area, but the the traffic is so bad there because of the high rises and the limited streets. Plus you will be traveling Rt 355 past NIH and the Navy hospital. Rt 355 around these 2 areas is BAD during rush hour and will only get worst because of the construction at both locations.
If you work in Rockville, you should think about going north of Rockville (around Shady Grove Road). Prices are MUCH less!!! Rockville should have apartments!!!! Maybe you are not looking at the right areas.
Welcome to the DC area.
What area is the job located at? Email me if you want more help/information.
get everthing in WRITTING
and have a realestate lawyer check it out.
find out who the leasing agent is .
walk very careful through this egg shell field.
I have had Comcast for the past 5 years and have not had any problems. The broadband is extremely fast and I have only experienced one outage. I never lived in a high rise, so you'll have to ask your building manager about satellite.
There's no LOGO, but everything else is available from Comcast.
There is digital voice, but if you have a cell phone, stick with it. Cost is like $20-30 per month.
Yes, the prices are high, but the service and customer support have been excellent.
Hope this helps!
12 people in a 2 bedroom is highly illegal. I would rather live in a place where I knew I could not be evicted by the town/fire marshal at a moments notice.
Try this site……..
http://www.rent.com
http://pennstate.craigslist.org/
http://pennstate.craigslist.org/apa/415293306.html
3 in a 1 bdrm is really crowded. 4 in a 2 bdrm is more doable – either bunk beds in both bdrms or two twin beds in each if there's room, or futons! If any of you are handy, create some semi-loft bed frames. Have the bed about waist or chest height – easier to jump onto than a bunk, but lots of storage space underneath.
4 x $250 = $1000
4 x $330 = $1320
Not real easy to find as they go fast, but keep looking! Don't forget to ask for the utilities history – depending on how well-built the place is (or isn't!) the utilities can really range.
they get put in vans and driven out to the suburbs or they go to a chruch program