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Comment by ghaff | Hacker News Reader

>Counterpoint: buying is always better, people just can't afford it.

>Renting has it's charm for youngsters

You're sort of contradicting yourself. So long as you think you're sort of settled in an area, buying is probably better.

But, if it's your first job out of school, even if you have a nice bunch of money you could put towards a down payment, it's not clear that buying is a great idea except maybe if you're in an area with lots of jobs for your chosen profession.

Once I bought, somewhat belatedly, I was in an area that offered enough possibilities in my (broadly speaking) field even if a couple commutes were on the long side.

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If you're young and you buy, you could get roommates and have them pay rent. That would definitely tilt the benefits heavily to buying.

Obviously the risk of this is significantly higher than just renting.

If you have your first job and therefore little to no liquid cash, and then on top of that you require tenants to make your mortgage, you're in a pretty risky position.

That means that if just about anything goes wrong you can be absolutely fucked.

You require a job and you require tenants or you're not going to be able to pay your mortgage.

Not really. If it's viable for you then buy your first property as soon as possible and keep saving. When you want to move just buy another and rent the previous one.

In most cases people will need to get a half decent job and save for a few years first but they can keep saving and have enough for another property in few years.

And if you really have to move - then you can still sell that property. People are getting new cars every 2-3 years and it's not that different from swapping real estate.

>And if you really have to move - then you can still sell that property. People are getting new cars every 2-3 years and it's not that different from swapping real estate.

Of course it is. I think the average American car age is 11 years or something like that. But, if I wanted to swap cars like that, I can go into a dealer and basically transact it in 30 minutes. Good luck doing that with a house.

Well, it depends on whether it’s a buyers or sellers market.

https://www.axios.com/2025/06/03/homes-buyers-sellers-redfin

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/ACTLISCOUUS

When it was a sellers’ market, I knew people who sold in days, and buyers who lost out offering 50, 75k over asking price. Today, not so much.

This presumes that the value of the property doesn't go down. I had more than one friend who bought before the 2008 financial crisis who was pretty stuck with their home. And who the hell has a second down payment for a home after a couple years of mortgage payments, upkeep, and fixing the "surprises" one finds after buying a home?

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