Are You a Homeowner or Renter?

87%: The increase in the number of households making $150,000 or more and renting between 2016 and 2021. Let’s talk about it!

I cannot read the WSJ Article… Paywall!

However is this a big surprise. I assume folks in this earnings range are more susceptible to relocation… and I suspect that the Relocation benefits available in the 70s and 80s are reduced or non existent.

Will the trend toward working from home change the incentives of home ownership. When I was a Realtor most folks wanted 4 bedrooms. Upon further questioning, I found what they really wanted was room for an Office. This was often less restrictive than a 4th bedroom.

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We had considered moving to Senior Living. With Covid glad we did not… not just for health reasons but being confined to a small area for an extended time would have been awful!

At 83, widowed, and living alone, I had considered a senior living place. However, made a detailed list with Pros / Cons about staying here vs moving.

Still here…

Senior living was going to cost us about 5000 a month for a greatly reduced space,

Instead we have help come in at a cost of about 500 a month.
That figure will rise… but as long as we can fix our meals… it will work.

Meals was a big con on my list about senior living vs a big pro about staying here. I actually love to cook and don’t want to be at the mercy of their daily menus. Cooking for myself adds a lot to my independence.

I could see given the housing market over the last couple of years where people were buying things sight unseen and without inspections that some would just bow out of buying for a while and wait for things to settle down. That happened to us when we were buying our first house a while ago and the local market was crazy. I just didn’t want any part of it and we continued to rent for a while until things were more normal.

We currently own, which we prefer even though it could be a cheaper option to rent. But we prefer to be able to do whatever we want to the house and nobody can tell us we have to leave.

How about living on a cruise ship ? The meals would be pretty good I would think.

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