Home Ownership Bad for Your Health
Perhaps those who feel desperate to own a home will take a pause after reading this article from Portfolio. “Homeownership is overrated and… it carries a downside as well as an upside,” they write, based on a study of health and happiness and home ownership among women. I find little evidence that homeowners are happier…
Perhaps those who feel desperate to own a home will take a pause after reading this article from Portfolio. “Homeownership is overrated and… it carries a downside as well as an upside,” they write, based on a study of health and happiness and home ownership among women.
I find little evidence that homeowners are happier by any of the following definitions: life satisfaction, overall mood, overall feeling, general moment-to-moment emotions (i.e., affect) and affect at home. Several factors might be at work: homeowners derive more pain (but no more joy) from both their home and their neighborhood. They are also more likely to be 12 pounds heavier, report lower health status and poorer sleep quality. They tend to spend less time on active leisure or with friends. The average homeowner reports less joy from love and relationships. She is also less likely to consider herself to enjoy being with people…
The great satisfaction from ownership, they say, comes when property values increase. Now that that’s less likely, and in many cases values are decreasing, why buy at all, when you can rent and be happy? “In fact, if Americans could be persuaded that rent payments aren’t ‘wasted money’ and that owning often makes less financial sense than renting, I think the rate of homeownership might, happily, drop substantially.”
Homeownership Makes You Fat and Unhappy [Portfolio]
Photo by TheTruthAbout.
does it count if they have 4 legs instead of 2, dittoberg?
bitter renters, bitter owners.
Are there any bitter squatters around?
I own a house in PS with tenants to boot. I have to admit there is some validity to that article with regards to time spent. I defintely spend at least half of my weekend devoted to “my house” while the remaining time goes to spending time with friends or trying to shop or read or work out. I mean how many of us have had a weekened wasted becuase the boiler shut down or finding out where the mystery leak was coming from?
When I rented, I could care less because there was someone else taking care of those worries that currently are mine!
hahah
Ah- i see the homeowners are touchy today. Why should anyone have to justify whether they want to rent or own? I rent. Happily. Proudly. And really don’t care if I own a house or not. I have other motivations and goals- so what’s the big deal? But half the pro-ownership kerfuffle is all about being better than renters. who cares why you want to be a homeowner? Who cares why I like renting? You make your choices for whatever reason, but this back and forth to prove being a homeowner makes you better than a renter is pure BS.
And in case no one has notices, rentals seem to be the new order. My nephew just got his RE license and the company he works for specializes in rentals. He can barely keep up with demand.
It’s just a bit funny how defensive homeowners are over this study. Now you know what some of you make renters feel like 🙂
(pitbullnyc- my guess is DIBS worked his tail off for those homes. Envious much?)
parkedslope, have you actually met anyone who was paying the same rent as they later do as a mortgage payment? My experience has been that people intending to buy don’t rent fancy, they rent within their means. When they buy, they want a nice place, so they take out a mortgage which ends up with a payment more than their previous rent, though possibly comparable after the deduction.
Attention Financeguy & his ditto-heads:
the mortgage interest deduction & capital gains exemptions are huge benefits to homeowners.
Was the omission of these fat ownership incentives intentional? Because they have benefitted me enormously.
Likewise, I may lose some of my principle if I’m forced to sell in the short-term, but most of it was profit from a previous sale. In other words, it would only be a paper loss.
Two other points:
1)the ‘missed investment opportunity’ argument is old & tired. The high cost of renting in NYC prohibits many [most?] renters from accumulating enough surplus cash with which to do any serious investing.
2)without a crystal ball, it’s impossible to predict future mortgage interest rates, but contrary to your assertion, all signs point to a continuation of the low-rate Fed policy in the medium-term.
Even a seemingly rational & smart posting like Financeguy’s can be riddled with mistakes!
Hohohohohohh fat unhappy owners rofl! Its so true! its so true! XD LAMO ahhahahahahahahahahaah oh owners you poor slobs. RAFL!!! XDXDXDX
Thanks Finance Guy – great analysis, and the explanation for why I’m renting now. I really did like owning before, for many reasons, including being able to renovate as we liked. It didn’t hurt that the value of our property kept rising. I’m also very glad, however, that we sold, since I think it would be much more stressful to sell in this environment. It took me some time to get psychologically used to renting again, but there are definite advantages – mainly freedom to move easily, and having someone else to do repairs. Of course, this is also a time when we are convinced we’ll ultimately save money by renting short-term while prices decline – the amount we pay in rent will be more than offset by the price cuts we’re starting to see. I also have friends who bought recently who find it stressful to have a huge mortgage and I think some of them have some buyer’s remorse, since buying of late got so out of whack that in many cases it was much more expensive than renting. Once things normalize and it is cheaper to own, I will certainly buy again.
Finaceguy – awesome post – 100% correct in everyway, although on it is amazing after the bubble has burst and so many people have lost substantial equity that so many still can not comprehend your message.
I disagree – while you are correct regarding the “forced” savings component of home ownership – it isnt really “savings” if your equity declines besides is it really fair to factor in people’s lack of fiscal discipline in analyzing true costs of renting v. owning?