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Comment by hprotagonist | Hacker News Reader

Here's my paradox: The city i live in has a median 1BR condo price north of $500k, which I cannot afford, but i more or less have to live here because this is the hub of my field. I hate long commutes, so, I rent.

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This! I had an hour plus commute living outside of Beantown when I first got out of college. I just don't want to do that again.

Also one of my friends just bought for the first time and he indicated it's expensive as hell. As a single person I'm not sure I want to get into that type of financial commitment when I have a sneaking suspicion the economy's about to collapse.

Similar for me. I think of renting as an investment as well - absolutely zero surprise costs and allows me to plan further out.

Not owning an (hopefully) appreciating asset means not having to maintain that asset. What’s the cost in time for buying and selling a home? I pay that financially to spend my time doing other things

Nothing wrong with renting, so long as you can sublet it, and you have rent control. Consider it an investment without all of the capital cost expenditures that come with a ownership. I have a coworker whose family member rented a one bdrm condo in downtown Toronto 20 years ago when she was attending university. When she left univ, she sublet it to another family member, and so on, and so on through the years. Thanks to rent control the rent has only increased a few hundred dollars over those twenty years. However, the she sublets it at current rental market value which pockets her $1000/month. Nice!

Oh, is that all you need? Just a cheap rent controlled apartment you picked up twenty years ago with a sublet clause?! I’ve been doing it all wrong

That's great! Your coworker's family member is breaking the law! You can't sublet for more than the rent controlled rent.

It's not illegal in Toronto. https://www.thestar.com/business/real_estate/2011/02/12/the_... My mistake. Sublet rental amount cannot be > leased rental amount. I didn't know that. Good to know. Does the landlord have recourse if this can be proved?

I'm surrounded by law-breakers then. https://www.kijiji.ca/b-short-term-rental/gta-greater-toront...

At least in SF, if you're caught doing it, you get the pleasant task of repaying all the excess payments back to the subletter.

It's rampant here in SF as well. I know a few folks who are getting 2-3x their total rent payment by renting out a couple rooms.

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