Quote:
Originally Posted by westopher
Its unfortunate, because its not just the financially retarded anymore as our banks, our society, and our media tells us we MUST own a home or we aren't successful..
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it's so funny how countries, with what I would regard as similar people (western, high immigration, initially christian base, etc.), can differ so much in their 'view' of home ownership.
in my current land of residence (mainland Europe), all the locals own, it's not just that society tells you, it's ingrained in them from day one (granted, they have 100+% mortgages (yup, no down payments), tax destructibility, etc. and a housing bubble which saw a 20% haircut a number of years ago, and will have another in the next 5 years, but i digress).
Yet, this country (specifically all the major cities) has a HUGE white collar expat community, and they all rent. Admittedly, that comes with being an expat, you move around, so renting fits the bill.
And in most other European countries (except Scandinavian ones and the UK), ownership rates are low, people rent, they will eventually take over the 'family home' (though this tradition is becoming less prevalent as we become more mobile).
Society, the norms, the expectations of people we don't even know or like, have such a profound effect whereby a certain proportion of people make terrible financial decisions just to say to society that 'look at me, i'm a home owner, i've made it'.
fight club comes to mind:
"Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need."
In our case, it's "Society has us buying houses we can only afford due to temporarily low rates, trapping us in jobs we hate, in cities we can't move away from to follow our dreams, all so we can appease some douche bag we've never met that views success by the house you own, even though you don't technically own it, and probably never will"