So, I was talking with my carpool on the ride home about the benefits of owning vs. renting – or rather, the lack thereof, and that in many ways, if I could go back to me-in-2001, even knowing that this house has been a relative bargain, I think I’d talk myself out of purchasing anything, and instead have just remained a renter.
But that said, there are periodically some upsides. Mobius, for one – we wouldn’t have (in good conscience, anyway) have been able to get a dog without having a sizable yard. We could have rented a home just as well, I suppose, but knowing we had this space made having Mobius a lot easier.
Second, I took a bath in the ofuro – it’d be a rare rental that has a deep Japanese-style bath. Yeah, it’s a small thing, but one of those moments where I realize that this isn’t just any house, it’s *our* house.
Most of the wacky things you can do to customize a house are just incredibly expensive, which makes the prospect of owning a home less interesting, because even though you *can* do all manner of stuff, we have neither the time nor the money to do the things we’d love to do – we just keep fixing things that are busted.
But then again, there are parts of the house that we had a personal hand in designing or building, and in the end, yeah – it’s a nice feeling. Worth the cost of ownership? Who can say, really?
Interesting that you post this now. I did the “own vs rent” calculation again last night, and though renting is still the better economic choice, I find myself impatient for when buying will be something we seriously consider. I think there is probably something about owning that grounds you to your city and neighborhood and street in a way that renters may never feel.
The other day, I had our baby in the swing that Seppo tied to our loquat tree and got teary-eyed at the thought that this baby will grow up at a house w/ a swing his daddy hung up on a tree that he eats the fruit from.
The customization is what gets me every time. We’ve put in a weird, un-sellable toilet; painted the walls weird, virtually unsellable colors; and are in the process of installing a climbing wall, which was removed from our previous house as a condition of sale. 😉
Yeah, some awesome things just don’t translate into dollar values.