Thanks for both your correction. Yes you are right that Christ died to free us from our sins, not our bank debt. But what I'm trying to say is that if God came to free us from sin, which is a big burden, won't he desire that we live a debt free life from all things we are slaves too like being in financial debt?
Hi willing heart,
Yes, and all I'm saying is that you have to live somewhere. What are your options? Of the available options, what is the wisest use of your money that you would spend for housing?
You say you just bought your first home after 65 years of living. Did you live for free those 45 or so years you were on your own? If you've rented all of your life, when you moved, what did you have to show for it? Yes, owning a home comes with its other costs, but you have to understand that even when you rent, if the water heater breaks down, you're going to pay for it. You may not pay out of your pocket when it happens, but you are paying for it. No landlord operates a rental that isn't in it for some profit for themselves. So all those ordinary and regular expenses that a homeowner would have, are considered in determining the rent that you pay.
If you want to upgrade some part of your home, say the kitchen or bathroom, if you're renting you're subject to whether or not the landlord will make those upgrades and even if he does, he's the one that gets the value out of the upgrade. If you own your own home and decide to upgrade, then you as the owner get the value of the upgrade.
In the U.S. property taxes, if one itemizes, are a deduction against income. Not so if you rent. Mortgage interest is also a deduction against income and is the largest deductible expense that most people have that qualifies them to itemize. Not so with your monthly rent. That's just money you pay to a landlord and it allows you 30 days of peaceful enjoyment of his property. If you fall behind on your rent, and no, I would never advise anyone to do so, but if finances really became so tight that you couldn't pay your rent, most landlords would move to have you evicted within 60-90 days. A mortgage foreclosure takes a lot longer.
Finally, when you do move for whatever reason, if you're renting you just give the landlord notice and you go. Nothing back in your pocket for years of faithful rental payments. With home ownership, even if you have to get a mortgage to do it, when you move, if you've maintained your property reasonably well, you'll get a lot of your hard earned money that you've paid over the years, back.
My son graduated college 3 years ago and rented a two bedroom apartment in Columbia SC for about $850/month. It was right at 1000sf. He bought a 5 bedroom 4 bath, 5000 sf home with $30,000 down and his monthly mortgage payment was only $1,200/month. That included taxes and insurance. When he moved out 2 years later, that big home that he bought for $141,000 was sold for $248,000. He had done about $30,000 in repairs and improvements, but you can't get any return like that if you're renting. He walked away, after commissions and costs of improvements with about $50,000 in his pocket. I don't know of any landlord that would have given him $50,000 to move after two years.
He took that $50,000 and bought a $320,000 home in Austin TX where he had been transferred. So his investment in a home for which he obtained a mortgage to finance has now put him in a beautiful 4 bedroom 3 bath home of near 3000sf in Austin TX with only about an $1800/month mortgage payment. He looked at some 2 bedroom 1000sf apartments in Austin and the cheapest decent place he could rent would have been close to $2500/month.
Because of our current tax laws, all that money he made on that first house is tax free money. If one can afford it and is able to qualify for a mortgage, there really are very few reasons why one should choose to rent over owning. One would be if you know you're only going to be in an area for a short length of time. The initial costs of buying a home can't be recovered that quickly. But if you're going to be in an area for awhile, then I always encourage people to buy their home. Overall it just makes better financial sense.
Now, I absolutely discourage my son from blowing good money on cars and other toys that just depreciate with use, but homes are different. Homes generally hold their value so long as the national economy is working well, and over the past 20 years, except for that short blip of 09-12, have generally increased in value. As I say, you have to live somewhere. Now the question is: What's the wisest use of your home dollar?
You ask the question whether God wants us to be free of things that might cause us to be slaves? Absolutely!! But in our present national situation, you're either going to be a slave to your landlord or a slave to a mortgage bank. Unless you're born with a silver spoon and old family money, we all have to start providing a home for ourselves once we hit our 20's. We will generally get married and have children and raise a family and that just can't be done well without a roof over our heads. Trying to save enough money from a paycheck to be able to pay cash for a home just means we're going to be slaves to that landlord a whole lot longer.
God bless,
In Christ, ted