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Comment by sakopov | Hacker News Reader

I would argue against this. I'm not sure owning is that much better. At the very least it's just as bad as renting if you bought in the past few years... I bought my home in 2023 and since then my monthly HOA payments doubled, my insurance premiums (nearly) tripled and my property taxes have gone up about $1000. Homeownership went from 35% to 45% of my monthly income. If you bought in the past few years, owning has absolutely been nothing short of a liability.

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Buying into an HOA means you're effectively renting a portion of your living arrangements. And if the dues doubled in just three years then you bought into a mismanaged HOA, which makes it worse. There's not much you can do about insurance premiums (assuming you've shopped around for better rates) and property taxes, but definitely check the financial situation of the HOA before you buy, or avoid them entirely.

> And if the dues doubled in just three years then you bought into a mismanaged HOA, which makes it worse.

Not necessarily true. Our HOA fees doubled precisely because of drastic insurance premium hikes. There wasn't much that could be done by them to avoid that, and in fact they worked hard to reduce some of those premiums the following year, which resulted in a lower monthly fee for everyone.

I own single family homes in a few different states. None of them are seeing the HOA + Insurance + Tax increases you are describing in the last 2 years.

I'm guessing you bought in a place that is seeing a rapid increase in property values, which I saw in 2020-2022 by owning in a zoom town. That would explain why insurance and taxes are increasing.

It's probably Florida or some other gulf state with weather risk. Could be California with wildfire risk but then they wouldn't have tax increases. In both of these states insurance is going crazy without the property value cause you mention. If it's a condo then insurance can single handedly explain HOA rates (since they buy insurance too) as well as HO insurance rates.

Florida's median property tax is about $2,500, so it's unlikely to go up $1000/yr. Places with high property values within the state of Florida like Miami Beach are mostly seeing decreasing or flat home values in the last couple of years.

I don't want to speculate too much on this poster's property, and I'm not super familiar with gulf real estate. I just wanted to highlight that I have a very different experience even though the post made it sound like their experience was the overwhelming popular one.

Comes down to area and luck. I bought in 2021 and while there have been increases, they’ve been modest. Certainly much less than I would’ve had to deal with had I continued to rent.

For context, property values have gone up 40-50% since 2021. Additional expenses are much easier to digest when you're not already paying an arm and a leg for a house at much higher mortgage rates.

If the market can bear it, those increased costs typically get passed down to renters too. Landlords are usually averse to covering expenses that don't go towards equity. If they can get away with it, they want to charge rent greater than mortgage interest + insurance + maintenance + taxes.

Basically, if you can rent in a place that landlords start suffering, you’re going to do well.

And if you buy in a place where renters start suffering, you’ll do well.

Every decision is easy when you have the future data now, which you never have.

Rule number one is always don’t buy into a HOA. They’re trouble. Always.

The HOA is something I could fight, but mine is currently cheap. The taxes, however, are infuriating. I’m getting taxed on unrealized gains after having paid taxes when buying the home. There is nothing I can do about the taxes, and if I do not pay my home will be taken. Essentially, I cannot own my home in any meaningful sense.

The road, water, sewer, and various other public services that make your house valuable are not free.

I would familiarize yourself with your city’s municipal budget before complaining about paying taxes. You’re likely being subsidized by urban dwellers if you live outside the city center.

I pay water, sewer, gas, and power to those utilities directly. The taxes to my county don’t pay for roads as that’s handled by the state DOT. The bulk goes to county police, fire, and schools. Yet, these haven’t seen increased costs, the people in those jobs haven’t received pay raises (which, my God, why not?) and overall, I can’t see why my taxes then got raised.

Your water bill almost certainly is not pricing in the replacement cost of the infrastructure it relies on.

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