Ask Lemmy

I'm in my late 20s. I live in rural Texas, but I've got friends all over this hemisphere. Only one of my friends 'owns' a house, and at the moment, he's only been able to afford it by renting out all the spare bedrooms. I don't know how he managed to scrape together a down payment. Everyone else I know is renting.

edit: plenty of my family members have houses, some even paid off, but I cut contact with nearly all of them years ago.

I live in Australia, where the housing market is absolutely cooked due to decades of bipartisan cowardice.

Mum and dad own their home, and an investment property that my youngest vrother rents now.

My youbger brother owns a nice house, but he spebt decades driving yachts for billionaires to be able to afford it.

I'm pushing 50 and may be able to buy something cheap a couple of hours drive from work soon if I'm lucky.

Does it really count as owning if you have a mortgage? (partly tongue-in-cheek, but only partly)

Edit: Bah, someone else already made this smart remark. That's on me, I didn't read the whole thread before posting.

Edit again to answer your "how common" question: Most of my older friends/relatives/acquaintances own their homes. Most of those younger than me do not. Or maybe it's 50/50 by now? I'd have to make a list and try to count, but that's too much trouble for a lemmy comment.

A mid-30s from New Zealand here. Out of my friends and family living in the country that I still keep in touch with, I can only think of 2 households that don't currently own their home.

One of them was pretty undecided for a long time about where he wants to live and what career to pursue, so didn't really settle down anywhere. He's in a serious relationship now though so that might change.

The other one is my brother-in-law and his partner. They're planning on purchasing a house at some point but it's not a priority for them - they're actually renting out our first house from us so they don't need to worry about getting kicked out without warning or dealing with unpleasant landlords or any of those usual things. When they leave, we plan on selling the house instead of renting it out again. We only kept it to make sure they had a safe space to be themselves.

Out of the homeowners, there's a quite a mixture of people. Some have come from privilege and got handed money from their parents. Others grew up in a lower socio-economic group and earned all of the initial deposit themselves. One guy has a single dad that's never owned his own home and has relied on disability income for most of his adult life. My friend had a lot of trouble finishing his university degree and finding work, it was years before he landed his current job at a small store. They're living together in a house he owns himself now, I thought that was pretty sweet.

New Zealand has had a housing problem problem for a while now, so whenever I think of owning/renting in general it's usually with negative feelings and frustration. Thanks for giving me this moment to reflect on a more personal level, I think my friends are doing great.

I don’t see myself ever owning a home. I’m in Los Angeles making ~$100k per year.

Own as in already paid off mortgage or still in the process?

Most of my friends own a house now, but almost everyone stil had a mortgage to pay. This is the Netherlands. Some of them bought their house during the banking crisis of 2008-2012 when houses were relatively cheap. Others who more recently bought their house have moved to smaller villages with lower prices.

USA.. Most of my friends over 25 have houses and are married.

Under 25, renting townhouses.

Rented until I got married and we decided it was worth shaving our monthly housing costs down by taking a 30 year mortgage. We locked in our lives and weren't going to be moving away anytime soon.

And then we refinanced when we'd made enough payments and most of all when fed interests rates were insanely brought to 0%.

Now we're locked in paying a fraction of what the landlords charge my neighbors. And we are constantly barraged with calls and mail to sell to corpo landlords.

People with rich parents own homes, pretty much nobody else does. Because their parents gave them the down payment or purchase it outright for their adult child. Ironically, these folks are the most vocal and whiny about how they don't have enough money...

I don't know very many people who own their own places who bought it entirely on their own, and those that did, usually live in a crappy tiny house in a undesirable town outside of the city. And they bought their homes around 40 years old, no in their 20s or 30s like the rich kids did.

Some are renting, some are under heavy debt for a run-down old house they are stressing out over as they are legally obliged to fix it up to certain standards within a set period of time (usually 5 years).

USA 31, most of my friends (all close in age) do but some still rent. Most work pretty good jobs. 2 I know own one or more multi family buildings they rent. Those are the ones with particularly good jobs, one is a very well to do real estate guy. I own my home with some property I operate a small farm on as a side gig. I've had a good income and been wise with my money since my very early 20s though. Home ownership in the US varies on location but is pretty much exclusively for 100k plus annual individuals or couples it seems like right now.

Northern Indiana / Chicago, millennial. Basically everyone in my circles own. Have one friend who rents (lives in NYC).

It seems not too crazy to own in IN, but the problem is you have to live in IN.

Canada, and nil. Unless you count my older relatives (boomers), everyone I know that's my age rents (from boomers).

Canada, Vancouver (HAHA I LOVE THIS CITY HAHA).

Philly-area millennial.

Among friends and family around my age, I have probably around a dozen or so people or couples who own their homes, one of whom inherited it, and one who bought it from family for cheap

And many more than that who rent, live with their parents (who often but not always own their home) and a couple whose housing situations aren't quite what you'd call secure but aren't quite homeless either.

As for myself, I'm kind of caught in paperwork limbo living in a house that's owned by my mother in law, that she's agreed to sell to us and we've been given carte Blanche to do whatever we want with it, are responsible for repairs and maintenance, but actually getting shit together for a mortgage is being way more of a pain in the ass than it should for reasons I don't really want to go into.

In my parent's social circles, the vast majority own homes or have in some way secured some kind of long-term housing for themselves, like one who basically gets their apartment rent free by being some kind of property manager.

Most of my friends live in other countries than I do, and rent, however among people I know here in lithuania most either own a home or live at their parents' house, excluding people living in the big cities who rent. I personally still live with my parents (who own their house) but my fiance and I have looked at potential houses we could get a few times :3

UK here, I was definitely the last person renting in my circle, bought a house mid to late 30s. Feels like everyone else bought 10 years before.

Most of them own some type of property. The rest rent. I was one of the last to buy right before shit hit the fan with COVID and the market went to hell.

I’m a gen Xer in the US. I and most of my peer group have our own places. The ones with good careers and stable relationships generally have houses in more desirable areas, but even folks with more blue collar or less fancy jobs have a place further out in the suburbs or have a small condo. The only younger people I know who own are either in a situation where they both make serious money (like doctors or do well tech), come from money or occasionally just make it happen with just serious hustle and grit (and even then, I’m amazed they can do it).

Pretty common - Romania

Though in big cities... Good luck owning. The strategy seems to be, for developers, to build really expensive apartments that nobody can outright buy, the rent is super high, therefore you can't save, and you stay a renter your whole life there.

Nobody is building modest apartments I swear... Every new block is for the elites only, even in my shitty little town.

Most of us are lucky enough to own an apartment or house outright but we usually own modest, old, commie or post commie buildings.

USA (NYC) and Canada (Ontario). I don't know a single person who owns their home.

I'm genX and have owned a home almost continuously since I was 23 or 24. In most cases I don't know whether friends own or rent their homes but afaik they almost all own. My sister doesn't, but she is disabled.

My oldest (~30) kids both own homes. One with her husband and she was a restaurant general manager when she bought and switched to bank manager to have a kid for better hours and benefits. My son is just a single guy who has been a nurse for a handful of years, and he just bought about a year or so ago.

This is in Midwest USA. When I lived near D.C. I think renting was more common.

Germany, pretty common gen x generation and older (my family isn't really that wealthy, either; the gen x people all got their home through inheritance), probably about 1 in 10 among younger generations. I doubt that I'll inherit much, either my parents or grandparents are probably going to sell their houses and spend it all on geriartric care.

Most do. My social circle and family are spread out over the EU.

I had a SIL and FIL who don't own, and are generally bad with money. I fear we're going to have to take them in when they reach retirement.

Ownership feels good and you also need a place to live at... so... yes