Oh My Dollar! Makes a Case Against Homeownership

Photo by Joss Woodhead on Unsplash.

If you’ve been thinking about whether to add homebuying to your five-year plan — which I occasionally think about, though not in any serious, let’s-start-doing-the-math way — you’ll want to listen to this week’s episode of the Oh My Dollar! podcast.

In “The Case Against Homeownership,” Lillian Karabaic and Will Romey discuss some of the reasons you shouldn’t buy a home, and although they recap some of the typical reasons to avoid homeownership (“you aren’t planning to stay in the area long-term”), they also touch on a few financial aspects of homebuying that I wasn’t aware of — such as the fact that, in most cases, you don’t really start building equity until you’re halfway through your mortgage.

If you’re all “but you’re still building equity instead of throwing away money on rent,” here’s Lillian’s counterargument:

There’s a ton of expenses that are involved with owning property that you pay every single month that are throwing away money just as much as rent.

The podcast is only sixteen minutes long, so take a listen and let us know what you think — and if you think the argument’s a little one-sided, don’t worry; Oh My Dollar! plans on making a case for homeownership in an upcoming episode.

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