Is renting neccessarily inferior to home ownership?

[Clarko95 📚💰📈]

Personally, what I love about living in Germany is that renting for life is a perfectly acceptable option; in fact, a majority of Germany live in rented apartments or houses.

I don't want to take out a $400k+ loan and have it control me for the majority of my adult life. I don't want to shovel snow, rake leaves, clean gutters, cut grass, etc. I don't want to file a property tax return. I don't want to have to keep a large lump of cash on hand just in case the boiler fails or the roof needs replacing. I don't want to have to spend so much time and effort cleaning anything that is greater than 1400 sq feet/130 sq meters. I grew up in a suburban house and it was just an enormous waste of time, effort, and money from my perspective, and a major source of stress and tension in the family. That is something that the pro-ownership crowd underestimate, is how much of your life will get sucked up simply maintaining the property, getting around in a low-density area, and how much tension it can cause in your family.

The only reason homeownership in countries like the U.S. is so lucrative is because homeowners receive huge subsidies in terms of interest tax deductions, government sponsorship of mortgages, car-based infrastructure, and the political consensus that housing prices must always rise, so that the next family can do the same thing again.

I love living in an apartment where, while rents do increase, they are subject to a rent index and a rent brake. My rent increased with the new year from 653 Euros per month to just 656 Euros per month, an increase of just 0.4% for operating costs. It shouldn't be acceptable to just raise rent to whatever you feel like, and that's a good thing that helps bring about stability. I prefer to keep 10k in cash in the bank as my six month emergency fund, and then the rest of my savings gets shoveled into mutual funds and bonds. I have the flexibility to up and move to another city if necessary, while a mortgage would chain me to one area, especially if I try to sell during an economic downturn.

It's very good for the economy as a whole that businesses that actually create value and real wealth don't have to compete for capital with worthless property speculation, and that the tax system incentivizes building more homes and apartments instead of restricting supply to boost prices artificially. You should buy a house because you actually need the space and want to live there, not merely to make a profit off the price appreciation (which should be incidental to ownership).