Dear Mr. Fed Chair Powell Sir, Rents Are Blowing Out and People are Hurting In January, the median asking rent for one-bedroom apartments increased by 10% or more in 56 of the 100 largest cities in the US, compared to a year earlier. In 34 of the 100 largest cities, one-bedroom rents spiked by 15% or more. In 20 of those cities, rents spiked by 20% or more, and in 11 of them, rents spiked by 25% or more. Many of the cities with the largest year-over-year rent spikes are medium-size cities with more modest incomes.
%% WHEN has renting ever been a good deal for the renters??????????????????????????????????????. ONLY if a renter is in town briefly or just trying an area like a college kid.........................................................................
It's supply/demand like anything else. If there are more houses/apartments for rent than there are people looking for somewhere to stay, then renters can get good deals. Of course that's not the case in many places now....maybe in a few big cities people are fleeing. I know a few RE investors who rent their own houses. They see owning their own house as more of a liability and would rather use the funds to invest in more properties. To be fair, that was about 5-10 years ago, so I don't know if they're still renting in this environment, though.
Up until about 15 years ago I always rented, primarily because I could rent a nicer property than I could buy. Then came the 2008 crash and the situation flipped so we bought a house in 2009, at the bottom of the market, that we sold in 2019 when values had nearly doubled. Less than a year later, in March 2020, I went all in the market with the profits from the house, mostly in TSLA. By the end of the year I had retired. If you're super disciplined and have the required disposable income, renting is a better strategy. But for most people, owning a house is building capital. The challenge is that after some time, most people aren't willing to risk that capital in risky ventures.
Just remember, this is the anonymous online world where anyone can claim anything. Not everyone can buy boatloads of Apple for $0.30/share in 2003 like I did....
Circumstances pushed me to act. When successful, I look like a star. When it fails, I look incompetent. Life is funny that way.
Funnily enough, I had a similar circumstance in March 2020 but not being super smart, even though I was all cash, I just went in a little like a moron.
Yeah, now the challenge is not losing it all! 2021 was really tough for me, down consistently all year but managed to break even 3 weeks before the end of year. Except I got greedy and loaded on MSTR and CMG for a multi days trade that turned into a substantial loss that I'm going to spend 2022 trying to recover from...