> The average sales price of a home in my county is $2,000,000
Why not buy a single apartment? Or buy and afterwards inhabit a house together with a small group of friends so that the amount of money is shared between the group?
Why not buy a single apartment? Or buy and afterwards inhabit a house together with a small group of friends so that the amount of money is shared between the group?
In places where it's much more, buying is a bad idea (unless you're really committed to living there forever and are really committed to speculating that prices will only even go much higher there -- but that's taking on a huge risk, not decreasing it).
Remember, you can always just SAVE the money you would have put towards mortgage principal. Sure, with a mortgage after 30 years you have a house free and clear. But at the same price, a renter who saved the money that would have gone towards mortgage principal still ends up with a pile of money after 30 years -- a pile that is probably more diversified rather than being all in one single asset correlated to a single metro region's economy. I mean, who knows if the area I buy in will still be popular in 30 years?
I'm married & the thought of doing a "house share" with other married couples seems very cramped up & a recipe for disputes. This is aside the fact that it's absurd that dual-working married couples would have to resort to this at all, it's a completely unacceptable arrangement for most couples in the US at this point. But nothing's off the table it seems
But perhaps this is a different mentality between US and Germany.
Yes, we do a lot of roommate shares here in the US; I lived in about 7 of them through my 20's. But I didn't live with my wife in a room share. I'm now married and I live with my wife, and we are effectively rent-sharers now.
It's still not enough to have a 20% cash savings rate, much of what would be saved as cash instead pays debt (mostly college debt + debt originating from emergencies/unemployment). But we almost certainly couldn't afford a local property of any type, save a studio apartment on the outskirts of the city, with a 20% savings rate over the next 5 years. And part of this has to do with down-payment financing arrangements nearly always losing out to deals paid in cash on-the-spot. (Indeed, there are people roaming the streets with certified checks from $800,000 - $2,000,000 who are viewing new-to-market properties daily)
I've seen both (OK, they were not married, but in a commited relationship), where of course the latter case is more common.