buy or rent a home?

[scrubbyfish]

Assuming that:
-I can find a beautiful, small, detached home with yard near a town
-I can own a manufactured home (generally depreciating vs appreciating) at $50,000 cash + $300/mo pad rental + utilities
-utilities whether owned or rented work out the same
-amount not paid for ownership is invested at a conservative risk level
-I live there for four years

...at what rent amount does the cost of buying vs renting become equal?

How do I do this calculation?

[matchewed]

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/business/buy-rent-calculator.html

Then give whatever value you feel comfortable giving to the non financial aspects.

[scrubbyfish]

WOW!!!! Awesome resource, thanks matchewed!!!

I did try some "rent vs buy" calculators before I posted, but none of them helped me answer this question. This one looks amazing. I need to take my kid to a thing, and am excited to try it as soon as we get home!

[Another Reader]

Mobile homes are depreciating assets.  They wear out faster than stick built houses and need more repairs as they age.  Older mobile homes are difficult to sell, and park owners often require they be removed at a certain age.  No one will buy it if it has to be removed because of age/condition.

Lot rents go up.  After four years, the rent could be much higher.

In your shoes, I would wait until you can afford a house.

[scrubbyfish]

It's unlikely I will ever be able to afford a house in BC.
The most basic detached house in Vancouver started at $650,000 last I looked; other cities -even small ones- are still well out of reach.
I can't get a mortgage because my income is considered "unstable".

I did own a house before (that is, before BC went berserk), and its property taxes and insurance tripled in the first three years I owned it, so I had to sell.
Happily, and not coincidentally of course, the value also tripled in that period, so I at least got the equity (the savings I have now, minus some spending over the years).

This awesome calculator allowed me to enter a depreciating (negative) figure on the future value of the manufactured home, as well as all other associated costs, anticipated increases in pad rental, etc. It's really something!

I'm absolutely not attached to owning. I'm attached to being in a detached house on a quiet property where I can garden. If I can find that for cheap enough -a bit rural is fine- I'll happily continuing renting.

[Eggman111]

Yes, Vancouver has crazy expensive houses.

How far away from the city are you willing or able to go? Would you consider a basement suite, or part of a house? How about roommates?

Out here in Abbotsford, there are many farms that have houses or parts of houses for rent on a corner of the property.

[scrubbyfish]

Hi Eggman111,

Although I love much about our life here, I am absolutely willing to leave Vancouver, and I'd consider any part of BC, if not beyond. However, I'm finding it harder to make new "best friends" as we all get older, and I'm really feeling the need for some support caring for my son (I've been solo on this almost 24/7 for three years and 24/5 for the six years before that), so one of my criteria is being near a close friend, especially one willing and able to help me with my son in any way. This narrows me down to Rossland, lower Sunshine Coast, and Comox Valley, but most likely one of the latter two as then we can stay reasonably connected with most family members.

I'm in a basement suite now -it's small but super nice, but also gets lots of noise from upstairs, and for that reason I'm not willing to do a basement suite or apartment again unless we absolutely have no choice. We've been in these kinds of noise situations for all but six months of my entire life, and I'm done. I'd rather put an RV on land or something than do that.

I am also willing to live communally: shared house, or unconventional shelter on shared land, or WWOOF, etc. Looking at all these possibilities.

An ex-boyfriend has just offered me space on his new land, so that's a possibility except that it's a bit noisy and crowded and I'm not sure I'm ready yet to watch him date!

I absolutely love the Abbotsford area, but fear feeling isolated without the friend part nearby.

[Eggman111]

The island or coast are both beautiful places. I don't think you'll go wrong there. I'm less familiar with them than the lower mainland, though.

It sounds like you've narrowed down what you're looking for.

Real estate is still relatively expensive in those places, but not as high as the big cities.

I think your best bet is to look for a place you think you would like and rent there for some time. If you're sure about staying somewhere, maybe you can buy, but I don't think you'll need to in order to find what you want. I think it's likely you can find something a bit unconventional that works for you.

My wife and I own a condo here, and it's been good and I think we'll do ok with it, but honestly we might have done better in some ways without it. When faced with rent or buy situations now, I think of jlcollins' blog post: http://jlcollinsnh.com/2013/05/29/why-your-house-is-a-terrible-investment/