Buying vs Renting
A lot of people in finance circles love to debate whether renting or buying is the better financial decision.
For me, buying a house turned out to be one of the best financial moves I've ever made.
In December 2021, I bought my house for $345,000 and put $100,000 down.
Today, similar houses in my neighborhood are selling for $570,000–$599,000. (Yes Sask is way cheaper, just means less mortgage and not being mortgage poor and less interest over time)
That's an increase of roughly $225,000–$254,000 in value in just a few years. TAX FREE
What's interesting is that I only had $100,000 of my own capital in the deal. The bank financed the rest. Real estate gave me access to leverage that I would never be comfortable using in the stock market.People often focus on the mortgage payment, property taxes, maintenance, and interest costs. Those are all real expenses.But sometimes we forget to look at the asset side of the balance sheet.
In my case, that $100,000 down payment has produced a return that would be very difficult to ignore. I'm still a huge believer in investing and the stock market. Most of my wealth is invested there.
When we do move (for my job) eventually, our next house we should be able to put 450k down-payment with current equity and not having to sell any investments which is nice.
Has buying a home been a good financial decision for you, or do you still prefer renting and investing the difference?
