Renting

Not Buying A Home Is A Mistake

January 23, 2018 By Twila Van Leer

The single largest mistake America’s Millennials are making is failing to buy a home, according to millionaire and finance guru David Bach.

Although there is a school of thought that home ownership is the “American nightmare,” Bach holds to his premise that failure to buy a home limits young earners in their quest for financial well-being. “The average homeowner to this day is 38 times wealthier than a renter,” he asserts. “Buying a home is an escalator to wealth.”

Bach, author of “The Automatic Millionaire,” says he bought his first home in San Francisco. It skyrocketed in value. He then moved to New York, purchased another home and again saw a significant increase in value. He now owns a third home.

You have to live somewhere, he reasons, so why not make an investment in something that will pay you back over time? A renter can easily spend half a million dollars in rent over the years and end up with nothing to show for the expenditure.

“Or you can buy a house and spend the same amount paying down a mortgage and in the end wind up owning your own home free and clear.” As an example, he cites the math: $1,500 rent per month over 30 years equals $540,000 – money down the drain, in his opinion.

If you are considering the pros and cons of home ownership, he advises “Start by crunching the numbers. Do the math, starting with the smallest options. When you’re really clear on your goals, start shopping.

Rule of thumb: Make sure your total monthly housing payment doesn’t consume more than 30 percent of your take-home pay. Save for a down payment of at least 10 percent, more if possible. Don’t go overboard. Your first home may not be your dream home, but it is a step toward that end.

Buying a home puts you in the market, and, according to Bach, “You aren’t really in the game of building wealth until you own some real estate.”

Renting Housing Can Be Costly

October 29, 2015 By Twila Van Leer

More Americans are renting and many of them pay up to half of their income for housing and utilities.

Enterprise Community Partners, a nonprofit agency that promotes affordable housing, looked at census data and ferreted out the data, including the fact that more families are putting half of their earnings into a rental place. Since 20007, the number of people in this category has risen to 11.25 million, an increase of 26 percent.

The problem becomes more acute when the increase in rental costs outpace the rise in hourly wages. Rentals have risen at nearly twice the rate of income, Labor Department figures show. The department reported that hourly wages rose just 2.1 percent in the past 12 months, compared with a 3.7 percent increase in rents. For some families, the difference is forcing hard decisions on how to make the income stretch far enough.

A combination of factors underlying the problem includes the slow recovery from the recession of the early 2010s. Construction of new rental units also has fed into the dilemma, as has the number of families that lost their homes during the recession, opting for renting instead. All told, the various factors create a bad situation for those who rent, including the prospect of homelessness if they can’t meet the demand.

Many have had to downsize, moving from rentals with three or more bedrooms to those with one or two. Throw in the increased costs of transportation, communications and health care and many families find themselves overwhelmed.

Studies show that more than 30 percent of renting families in California, Florida, New Jersey and New York fork over more than half of what they earn to pay for housing and utilities. In other states, excluding Alaska, South Dakota and Wyoming, the figure goes down to 20 percent.

Enterprise Community Partners say their data is consistent with that of other organizations interested in the housing market. The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development has published figures that show 12 million renters and homeowners who see half of their income go into housing costs. In 2013, the Harvard University Joint Center for Housing Studies estimated that 27 percent of renters were paying 50 percent of income for rentals and related costs. The increases reported by these agencies were “unimaginable just a decade ago,” the Harvard report stated.

The high costs of renting are affecting the upkeep of many rental units, according to the Consumer Federation of America. Those who rent cannot afford to make routine repairs, forcing the landlords to look at further increases to meet this need. The alternative is to let buildings fall into disrepair. Both the property owners and the renters are caught in the bind.

Construction can’t keep up with the increasing demand. This spring, the National Low Income Housing Coalition reported a shortage of 7.1 million apartments for low income renters. More than 320,000 units are expected to be ready for occupancy this year, according to the Commerce Department. The shortages are most acute in the Western states.

But until demand and supply reach some semblance of balance, the prospects for higher rentals that absorb greater percentages of income are likely to continue.

Rent-To-Own? It Can Be Done

December 11, 2014 By Twila Van Leer

Renting with the option to purchase the house can benefit both renter and seller.

Home ownership is out of the grasp of many Americans today who face a vastly different market from that of a few years ago. That puts leasing with option to buy near the top of the possibilities list for many.

But look before you leap. It’s possible, but not always an easy approach to obtaining a home. Know what is at stake before signing on the dotted line.

There are different variations of the rent-to-own option, but basically it involves an agreement between a potential buyer and a landlord/owner that is expected to lead to a purchase. Such agreements usually are for two to three years. During this time, the owner sets aside a part of each month’s rent into an escrow account. If payments are made as agreed, the money in the escrow account can be used at the end of the lease time as a down payment and the purchase proceeds from there as usual.

In another version, the seller the two parties would agree to a lease for a set time with no portion of the “rent” going into an escrow account and the seller offering a discounted price at the end of the lease. This obviously would be advantageous to a seller who is under pressure.

Both parties to such an agreement have potential benefits. The renter is forced into saving for a down payment and the owner gets a monthly return on his property without waiting for a sale.

Yael Ishakis, a senior loan officer at First Meridien Mortgage in Brooklyn, N.Y., offers a for-instance: A client put $5,000 down on a home and signed a lease for $1,800 monthly rent, of which $600 per month went into an escrow account. On the regular market, the home would have rented for $1,600 per month, so the seller also was contributing to the agreement. At the end of the lease period, the client had $14,400 in the escrow. With the initial $5,000 down payment, plus some $10,000 the buyers had managed to save, they had about $30,000 for a down payment.

The pitfall may come if, in the end, the potential buyers are not able to complete the agreement. They then lose the escrow money, and possibly paid more in rent than they might have done otherwise.

Those owners willing to enter into rent-to-buy agreements usually are motivated by a sluggish market or have had their property on the market for a long time. In areas where the real estate market is thriving, there are likely to be fewer opportunities for renting with intent to buy.

Sometimes a potential buyer can work a deal with someone who is selling, but most often the seller will advertise his intentions. Some agencies specialize in rent-to-own properties. RentMACK is one such agency and there may be others you could find by researching in your own neighborhood.

Be forewarned that at the end of the rental period, you still must qualify as a purchaser. Bad credit will still be a problem. Rent payments are not often considered in building credit. Learn what your credit rating is and what is likely to be required when you try to finance. Try to improve your credit by using a secured or regular credit card, ideally paying it off each month. Or, if possible, get a car loan and make payments faithfully. If you can’t arrange financing, you may lose the escrow money. Take advantage of the lease time to prepare for the purchase. Be sure you understand at the outset what the full down payment will be and work toward it.

Get expert advice. There are dangers on both side of rent-to-own arrangements and often, after looking at the possibilities, people decide not to pursue this approach to home buying. State laws surrounding rent-to-own vary. Be sure you know what they are where you live.

From the seller’s viewpoint, if the potential buyer defaults, but there is money is escrow, a court could rule that the tenant has a property interest.

Involving attorneys on both sides is a good idea. Having legal advice on the proposed agreement may save difficulties if things don’t go as expected.