The rising cost of rent

[danbrotherston]

I wonder if part of the high end unit conversation is that there are more people who WANT to rent.  For a while there was this idea that if you could own, you should.  That doesn't seem to be the case anymore.

It is definitely the case that this is the perception I was given, and that is frankly, the reason I own right now.  But even ignoring the actual cost, which sometimes might be lower for renting, there are plenty of reasons why owning is bad (greater liability, more stress of dealing with issues, less flexibility--and also reasons why it's better, more control, etc.).

One thing is abundantly clear to me however.  Much like riding the bus, there is a certain class of people who will look down on someone for renting, I mean, whether these people are above or below renters in actual economic status is irrelevant, they'll still try to look down at renters.  You can see this on FB all the time with discussion of people who describe themselves as "taxpayers" in the city being entitled to more consideration--never mind that renters pay property taxes as well--its a very clear dogwhistle.

Now some people may not give the slightest care to this (like myself), but some do (also like myself--in this case, I ride the bus, instead of rent, and members of my family absolutely are upset about this), I do not care now, but at other times in my life, this would have bothered me...at those times of my life, I bought a house and a car.