dunhamjr, I would argue that you don't get to just make up definitions to words. A debt is something that you must pay back after money was loaned to you. A mortgage is a form of debt, although a very beneficial one to most people. Still, it is debt because it's a dollar amount you must pay back. Rent is not debt because you were never loaned money, it is an expense. Yes, it might be an expense with no sunset but that's still an expense.
The biggest difference between debt an an expense is that you can stop an expense, whereas a debt must be paid back. For example, if I rent a house for $1000/month and the housing market collapses, I can finish paying rent at the end of my term and that's it. Or technically I can stop paying early and just get hit with an early termination fee, which is usually the surrender of the security deposit.
However a mortgage has to be FULLY repaid in order to be satisfied. If I buy a house and have a $1000/month mortgage prior to that 50% drop in home prices, I do not get to just sell the house and move on. Sure, a lot of people sort of did that from 2008-2012 but it still isn't how the process works. The mortgage must be fully repaid in order to be considered fully satisfied. Unlike the rental where you can walk away regardless of the value of the underlying asset, a mortgage is debt because it must be fully repaid. Rentals don't have any loan associated with them, thus there is no "full repayment" to take place. That's the difference between an expense and debt.
And I would argue that I am using the definition just fine.
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A debt generally refers to money owed by one party, the debtor, to a second party, the creditor. Debt is generally subject to contractual terms regarding the amount and timing of repayments of principal and interest.[1] The term can also be used metaphorically to cover moral obligations and other interactions not based on economic value.
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Whether the creditor is a bank, in the case of a mortgage. Or the a landlord in the case of a rental. You still have a contract to pay that party X amount at Y time. My lease agreements spell the exact scenario as described above out, and its a rental. Just because the terms are more complex on a mortgage, or lacking interest in the case of a rental... does not mean they are not both equally definable as debts.
As for an expense being stopped. Ok, go rent a house... but stop paying rent 3 months in. How does that work out for you?
Or.
You stop paying the rent expense, because you move. Do you move to the underpass, or are you moving to a new rental?
If you remain a renter, your rental expense is still there until you die, find some method to live rent expense free, or buy a house of your own.
If you are a mortgage holder, you owe someone a debt. You can get rid of that debt by selling the house. Just as you can get rid of a rental expense by no longer renting.
And no. Mortgages do NOT need to be fully repaid to be satisfied. Foreclosures and short sales prove that every day.
If you want to keep the house yes, but the same would be said for staying in a rental unit. You don't pay the rent in full, they kick you out. You don't pay the mortgage in full, they kick you out. Same. Same.
You can walk away from both scenarios. One may be slightly more harmful to your credit for a while. But its very doable no matter mortgage or rental.
I am fine to leave the argument here because we are not likely to convert the others thinking, since both are valid ways to look at the scenario.