House or Apartment?
The debate over owning a home or renting an apartment is a long-standing one. No one wants to buy a home and then regret it or pass on a lovely house for an apartment they hate. It’s not a one-size-fits-all answer. It can’t be. You need to consider costs, lifestyle, features, and privacy, and not everyone values the same things. It’s impossible to say one definitively wins over the other, especially when you start to account for location, money, and job requirements.
There are pros and cons to both, and it all depends on you.
Flexibility
Do you crave the freedom to pack up and move to another town whenever you please, or do you desire the freedom of painting your walls sunshine yellow? Apartments and homes each offer their own brand of flexibility. If you’re a wandering nomad, you probably don’t want to be tethered to home. But if you’re obsessed with HGTV renovations and designs, you fall in the home category.
Cost
You’re either paying rent or paying a mortgage each month. Rent helps out someone else while your mortgage helps out yourself. But then there’s interest in a mortgage, too. And we Canadians don’t get the hefty tax breaks our American friends do. Then again, your rent in an apartment likely grows each year, not to mention deposits for pets or damages you caused.
Amenities
Apartment complexes tend to offer a whole lot more amenities than homes can. You’ve got a gym, a pool, a laundry room where you don’t have to clean the lint or pay for the water. You might even have a rooftop patio if you’re lucky. But your parking spot is also wedged between a truck and a pole, and the dumpster is so disgusting you dread taking out the trash. Oh, and you don’t have enough closet space.
Maintenance
Homes come with the terrible knowledge that one day the water heater will break, and you’ll have to pay to fix it. The roof will leak, and a bunch of cigarette-smoking men will perch on your lawn as they fix it, wafting the fumes into your windows. Don’t even think about the potential of a sewage-flooded basement, either.
What You Need to Know
Choosing apartment living might make sense if you travel a lot, want a worry-free maintenance zone, or crave high-end amenities. On the other hand, a home is best if you need more space, want to build equity or have a hands-on approach to fixing things. If buying a home is right for you, the Green Mortgage Team is happy to get you started on the path to buying.
-Kyle Green
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