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Comment by wrath224 | Hacker News Reader

This is exactly my thought process. If I have to pay a mortgage I know I have to work a much longer to pay off the house. This means I have zero control over what dictates my daily actions in life. Having a mortgage means I’m not free to do whatever I wish; focus on family, start a company, work on passions. The cost of houses/homes are just too high. I don’t want all of my net worth to be in a house either. It’s JUST a house.

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-> This means I have zero control over what dictates my daily actions in life.

OTOH, having a mortgage "locks in" your price of housing for the next ## years. It's perfect for families and startup businesses because it affords some long term stability.

It doesn't sound like you're ready to settle down yet, so buying a SFH probably isn't the best move right now anyway.

This assumes I want to pay for housing over a period of time. I’d love to just pay for it once and never be beholden to anyone ever again. My car was $5000. When something breaks I fix it myself for nothing. I’ve replaced heater core in 1940s furnaces myself, put on new roofs, can drywall anything myself. Houses are cheap to fix and you can find people that do it right for little money if you know your stuff. I’d love to settle down and I’m ready to do that where it makes sense, but where I want but is not affordable. I can rent but then I’m wasting money. Building more housing fixes this problem very easily.

Maintenance isn't that cheap even if you put in a lot of sweat equity. And you have property taxes which can be a fair bit depending on the area.

You absolutely buy yourself a degree of stability and reduced future payments with a house but you're still probably looking at thousands of dollars a year for a standalone house.

The alternative is basically throw money away renting. With a mortgage at least some of it goes back to the you

Yeah but closing costs are lost at time of sale, so for short term situations buying a home isn't a great move.

The other alternative is to just pay for the house cash. Not everyone wants to be beholden to someone (in debt just to live). Sounds awful.

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