Buy? Nah, Rent. Nah, Buy.

For Kelly Stettner, 41, who had rented all her adult life, buying a house brought unexpected joy. When their landlord put the duplex she and her husband were renting up for sale, they ended up purchasing a 1929 bungalow on an acre in Springfield, Vt.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/njonline/no_20100508_1960.php/buy-a-home-nah-rent-nah-buy--20110316?page=1

Buy? Nah, Rent. Nah, Buy.

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Deciding used to be simple—buying a home always made sense. Then the bubble burst.

By Alina Tugend
Wednesday, March 16, 2011 | 10:52 a.m.

Jean Sica-Lieber owned homes all of her life—when she was married and divorced, when her children were young and when they were grown. But recently, after selling her Rochester, N.Y., town house at a loss, she decided to rent. Sica-Lieber assumed it would be for a year and then she would buy a small place with a garden. But now, she’s rethinking that plan.

“Part of me, and I think this exists in most Americans, wants to be a property owner, despite the fact that unless we buy outright, the bank really owns most of it,” the 58-year-old publishing specialist said. “But when it came right down to it, I’m single and don’t have children to do chores. How do I want to spend my time? Would I rather do more travel or pay property taxes?”

So Sica-Lieber decided to hold off on buying that little house, and she renewed her lease on her town house for at least another year.

For Kelly Stettner, 41, who had rented all her adult life, buying a house brought unexpected joy. When their landlord put the duplex she and her husband were renting up for sale, they ended up purchasing a 1929 bungalow on an acre in Springfield, Vt. They, their two children, and their dog couldn’t be happier.

“Budgeting is different, but we’re exploring many options that we never had considered while renting—a solar panel, a vegetable garden, [do-it-yourself] landscaping, and much more,” said Stettner, an administrative assistant. “But the emotional end is what I couldn’t imagine. There’s a self-esteem from the responsibility of owning it. We’re responsible for keeping it energy-efficient, keeping it clean. We get to do what we want, when we want, on our own terms, and we directly benefit from it. That was something I hadn’t really anticipated.”

To buy or to rent? That was never much of a question for most Americans. Buy as soon as possible, of course, to show that you’ve grown up and made good. Paying rent, the thinking went, is just throwing money away; owning a house is an investment in the future.

Until the past few years, that is, when too many Americans who bought homes with too little down and at too high a price discovered that they couldn’t pay the mortgage and couldn’t sell either. That unaffordable house became an albatross. So now, potential homeowners are more likely to seriously consider renting. But which makes more economic sense in the short- and long-term?