Renting vs Owning

[PokerPaul]

I myself am renting at the moment as well. Probably will for the next 2-3 years and then might buy something exactly to my tastes.

Anyways, it was a no brainer for me.

I am now living in a nice penthouse condo, with ample space, and many nice amenities. The condo building is about 20 years old, so its not as 'new' and shiny as the newest fancy condo units that are popping up everywhere these days, but its still a very nice place to live.

Face value on my 2 bedroom unit is about $365k i'd say.

As such, i estimate the following MONTHLY costs if i were to buy it instead:

$1300-$1500 Mortgage interest
$900 Condo Maintenance Fee
$300 Property tax
$90 Insurance

So roughly $2800, before actual mortgage principle payment, which then would also bring my monthly payment to around $3200 - 3400 depending on how you want to structure your mortgage.

Instead, i negotiated a monthly rent of $1950. They had initially asked $2400, then reduced it to $2250. I came in and lo balled them on feb 24, saying i could move in mar 1, and offered $1900. I fully expected them send a counter offer in the $2100 - $2150 range, which i likely would have taken. However, they were desperate to unload is ASAP, and the fact that i was willing to take it for a week later, thus allowing them to cash in a full month extra rent, made them sign back to me at $1950...which i gladly took.

So compare:

Owning i'd be paying well over $3k per month, renting i am paying under $2k, for the exact same unit.

Of course, if i stay ten years, if i own i would have equity in the house AND the aprreciation it yields.

But i think i am way better off pocketing an extra $1000 a month, and investing $700 of it in stock market, and using the extra $300 maybe for fun money, or for additional lease $$ for my car, which can easily be the difference between a regular acura or a nice 4 year old porsche.

Sounds like a much better deal for me.