Buying Cons
It’s more difficult to travel and relocate. Want to go to Southeast
Asia for six months on a whim? Leaving your house isn’t as easy as
getting out of a lease, packing your bags, and getting a one-way
ticket to who-knows-where. Same goes for work-related relocations.
You’ll have to rent out or sell your house—or else prep it to stay
vacant for a long time.
You have more expenses. Remember how little renters
insurance cost you? I hate to break it to you, but homeowners
insurance will cost a lot more. Combine that with a possible flood
policy, homeowners association (HOA) fees, property taxes and
higher utility bills, and you’re looking at higher monthly expenses.
You’re your own landlord. A leaky roof could be a full-on crisis
that’ll take dipping into your emergency fund to fix (or replace with a
whole new roof). But when you rent, a leaky roof just needs a
bucket under the leak until your landlord fixes it.
You have to save up money for a down payment and closing
costs. This takes time and hard work. If you’re a first-time home
buyer, I recommend putting down 5–10% of the home’s purchase
price.
Renting Pros
You can move easily. Tired of the city you live in? Thinking about
taking a year to travel the world? When you rent, you don’t have to
stay in the same location. Plus, it’s much easier to get out of a lease
than a mortgage.
You don’t have to pay for maintenance. If the stove goes kaput
and the faucet pipes burst, you don’t have to call the plumber or
make a trip to the appliance store. You call the landlord. One of the
biggest perks of renting is that you never have to worry about
surprise repair costs.
It’s cheaper in the short term. Besides having virtually no
maintenance costs in an apartment, renters insurance
is way cheaper than insuring a home. Your move-in costs will also
be lower since you pay a small security deposit instead of a giant
down payment. Plus, once you’re in, you won’t pay high HOA fees
or private mortgage insurance (PMI).
Now, as anxiety about germs again informs housing decisions,
these simulacra of the suburbs may be getting a fresh look. “When
you can’t go outside, it starts to grind you down,” said Kathryn
Giannelli, 37, a social-studies teacher whose previous home, a
two-bedroom apartment in a high-rise near Queens Boulevard
that she shared with her partner and son, felt increasingly
“claustrophobic” as the pandemic progressed. She recently moved
into a renovated two-bedroom, two-bath duplex with a balcony
that cost $375,000 at Parkway Village, a 675-unit, 35-acre co-op
in Jamaica. “It’s very green and very quiet,” Ms. Giannelli said.
The complex was built in 1947 as a rental before going co-op in
1983. In 2019, the Manhattan-based real estate firm Glacier
Equities bought 63 sponsor-owned rentals at Parkway Village that
are gradually being renovated with finishes like stainless-steel
appliances, quartz counters and coffered ceilings.
Sales at other similar garden communities have largely held
steady, which is significantly better than the fate of more
traditional apartment buildings in Manhattan, where sales
volume was down by about 20 percent in the last three months of
2020. Brokers say that at many garden communities, sales
inventory was low in 2020, perhaps because fewer people were
choosing to move since they were able to take advantage of the
open space in their complexes.
According to the latest Census from 2016, 10 per cent or
2,348,434 Australians lived in an apartment. There was now
about one occupied apartment for every five occupied separate
houses in Australia — compared to one to every seven, in 1991.
When Robyn Nutt moved from Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast's Mooloolaba 18 months ago, a large
balcony capable of housing a garden was mandatory for her new home.
More people are choosing to live in apartments than ever before. According to The Rental Protection
Agency, people between the age of 14-34 make up about 40.6% of the people that rent in the United
States. Since 2020, according to the same group, apartment rentals have increased by 19%. More people
are choosing to live in apartments and here is why.
It’s Convenient
The old real estate saying “location, location, location is everything” rings true for many apartment
dwellers. They choose to live in an apartment because it is conveniently located near their job or their
school. Many people are tired of wasting time on long commutes. They prefer to live near work, schools,
shopping centers, medical facilities, and entertainment venues. The money that can be saved on gas and
transportation costs is significant when you rent an apartment in the right location.
It’s Worry Free
Many people do not want the stress of home ownership or even renting a home. When you own a
home, the cost of maintenance can be high. Most of the time when you rent a house, you take on some
of the responsibility for the upkeep. Apartment living is worry-free when it comes to maintenance and
repairs. If something breaks, you put it in a work order and it is repaired at no cost to you. Snow removal,
taking care of common areas, and more falls on the property management team, not on the renter.
It Comes With No Long-Term Commitments
Apartment living is appealing to people because they can try out different areas instead of being stuck in
one location for 30 years. A one-year lease can be just enough of a commitment to determine if you are
happy in the building. It’s freeing for many people not to feel obligated to or stuck in one location. It is an
ideal way to live for many people.
If you are considering renting an apartment in the near future to be closer to work, school, or both, you
should act quickly. The market for apartments is highly competitive right now. As more people evaluate
the benefits of apartment living, more people are choosing this option.
Excellent Option If Your Town Suffers from
Extreme Weather
Suppose you live in a city where it snows a lot. If you lived in a home, you
would have to regularly shovel and clean your driveway. This responsibility
falls in the hands of the landlord. Hence, you are saved from the headache of
having to carry out more tasks during bad weather.
Approximately 2 million new renter-occupied households were added in
2014, while the number of owner-occupied households decreased by more
than 350,000, according to report from the U.S. Census Bureau in early 2015.
As people choose apartment living
