Mortgage vs Rent

[SymphonicX]

yeah I own a 170k debt on my home...until it's paid off, it's kinda the banks. Lou's right though in that it opens up the doors to many financial things and you can quite happily tell any bank manager "give me what I want, I'm a fuckin' home owner!!" love owning my flat- it's been a major stress but it'll be worth it in the end, I hope. It's a minefield and you shouldn't own a house until you're ready. The market in the UK is so amazingly different frmo the US though - just looking at places like NY which seems to be only a rental city! SO thankful I've worked hard enoughto afford what I have, as soon as the market grows back again I'll be laughing. Currently my mortgage rate is 1.5% - minimal payments on my home are £500 a month...I've been doubling it for 3 years now.

[Publius]

Like I said though, you dont actually own it until you've made that final payment on it, anytime up until then the bank can seize it and everything in it if you fall on hard times & cant keep up those payments, theres been a lot of reposessions & people living in negative equity in the UK in the past few years. But I'm sure the property market and peoples attitudes towards it are very different between Britain and the US I don't know what mortgages in the UK are like, but in the US the bank does not normally acquire a security interest in personal property in the house ("everything in it") unless it was something they loaned you money to buy and is mentioned in the loan documents. Also, while you certainly owe something until you make "that final payment," it's not fair to say that they effectively own the house itself, as though they can just seize it and leave you with nothing. They are only entitled to as much of the house as necessary to cover the outstanding balance of the loan. That may be all or almost all of the value of the house during the first several years of home ownership (especially if you buy at the top of a bubble or don't make a proper down payment), but you will have a substantial amount of equity in the house long before you've "made that final payment."

[Tricky]

until you make "that final payment," it's not fair to say that they effectively own the house itself, as though they can just seize it and leave you with nothing. As far as I know they can in the UK, obviously there will be a legal process to go through before they can send in the bailiffs but you hear of it happening, there are also companies in the UK who specialise in buying peoples houses from them & then renting it back to them if they cant meet the mortgage payments. In these uncertain times with a huge financial & jobs crash looming within the next year, it would be very unwise of somebody like me to go down the route of trying to buy a house. Plus house prices in the UK are way, way too high for what the properties are actually worth

[AcesandEights]

As far as I know they can in the UK... Man, if Prima Nocta and quartering redcoats in your homes wasn't bad enough as it is