Should You Rent or Buy A House Right Now?

Everyone says owning a home is the

ultimate goal, but in today's market,

that decision isn't as simple as it used

to be. Between high prices, rising rent,

and interest rates that are all over the

place, a lot of people are asking,

should I buy a home right now or keep

renting? And so, in this video, we will

be analyzing exactly that. We'll be

looking at the benefits of buying a

home, the downsides of buying, the

benefits of renting, the downsides of

renting, and how you can actually make a

solid decision that you can stick with

at least in the short to medium term,

and of course, you can re-evaluate later

on. So, before we jump into the video,

did you buy a house or are you saving up

to buy a house or are you just planning

on renting for a while? I'd love to

hear. Comment that down below. So, the

reason this question even matters

anyways is because I feel like home

ownership, it used to be seen as like

the definition of making it. You know,

you get married, you buy a home, you

have a family, but I feel like in 2025,

the math just looks a lot different than

it used to. Mortgage rates are a lot

higher, the housing supply is kind of

tight. It seems like although rates are

high, housing prices haven't dropped at

all, but also rent prices are jumping

too. So, how do you know like what is

the best decision to make? And the

question isn't always just what is

cheaper. It is what fits your current

lifestyle as well as goals. Because both

renting and buying have pros and cons.

It really just depends on your

situation. So starting out with the

benefits of buying a home, one of the

first main benefits is that you're not

throwing money away. People constantly

rip on renting because of this. Because

when you're buying a home, every time

you pay your mortgage payment, you are

building equity. And each payment that

you pay chips away at the loan amount

that you're borrowing and adds to your

net worth. So you get to build some

equity there, which is really nice. as

well as the home going up in value will

also build equity. The next thing is

that you get stability. Your house

payment stays very consistent, assuming

that you have a fixed rate mortgage, and

you're not at the mercy of rent hikes.

It would suck to be living in a really

cool place and then all of a sudden they

bump your rent up by 8, 10, 12%.

Normally, when it comes to home

ownership, you know exactly what your

mortgage payment is going to be, and it

might go up a little bit due to property

taxes or insurance, but for the most

part, it's pretty predictable each year.

So, the next benefit after that is it

can kind of be like a forced savings

plan because a lot of people are

building long-term wealth through home

appreciation, which just means the home

going up in value. Now, I would

definitely not count on this being the

one way that you're building wealth, but

it's definitely a good one. And like I

said before, when you're renting, that

money is not building any equity at all.

You're just paying your landlord there.

And then the next benefit of owning a

home is that you can have a lot of tax

advantages. So, you can get deductions

for mortgage interest as well as

property taxes. And then there's also a

psychological side of this because and

there's also the psychological side of

owning a home where you're probably

going to take pride in the fact that you

know you can call this place yours. You

can do whatever you want to it. You can

remodel it. You can you know build it

out. You can do anything you want and

you're you know not very limited which

is pretty nice and you will get a sense

of hey this is mine and I can you know I

own it at the end of the day. So those

are the pros of owning a home. Now some

of the cons. One of the first ones and I

think this is one of the biggest ones a

lot of people struggle with especially

nowadays is that the upfront costs are

pretty hefty. If you want to buy a

$400,000 home and you want to put 20%

down, I mean, that's $80,000. And even

if you don't do 20% down, let's say you

do 10% down, that's still $40,000. And

if somebody's making 60, 70, 80K a year,

that's going to take a while to save up

for. And not only do you have to pay for

the down payment, but there's also

closing costs, there's inspection, and

then there's also moving expenses cuz

you're going to be moving from where you

were previously living into the new

home. So, that is definitely one of the

cons. It is a pretty high barrier to

entry in my opinion, especially in

today's market where interest rates are

kind of high but home prices haven't

dropped too much the past couple of

years. The next con I can think of is

that maintenance and repairs are your

responsibility. So before whether you're

renting a home or living in an

apartment, you could just, you know,

call maintenance or call the landlord

and it's their responsibility to fix

different things compared to when you

own the home yourself. It is all on you.

So if you want to save some money there,

you can, you know, go to YouTube

University, try to become a handyman the

best way you can. And if not, you're

going to have to pay for it out of your

own pocket. So, you know, pick your

poison there. So, you do have to pay for

all your own maintenance and repairs,

which can definitely suck, especially if

you have a big like expense that comes

out of nowhere. That can definitely hurt

your wallet. And also going back to like

the upfront cost. Another thing that is

kind of expensive is that you have

property taxes, insurance, as well as

HOA fees. And this could add up to

hundreds of dollars a month in your

monthly cost. So, not only are you

paying principal and interest on the

home itself, but like I said, you have

property taxes, insurance, and HOA. So,

that can add up a lot, too. And then

another downside that I don't know if

many people think about this is that you

kind of lose flexibility. Like if your

job changes or if you want to move,

selling a home is not an instantaneous

thing. Especially in today's market,

even when I go on Zillow or Redfin right

now, like I'm not even looking to buy a

home, but I see a lot of homes that have

been listed for 6 plus months. And that

would definitely suck if you wanted to

move somewhere and instead of just

waiting for your lease to end and

getting out and moving wherever you

want, you have to wait until the home

sold. And you also would want the home

to be sold at a pretty good price. That

way you're not losing money and you're

actually, you know, making a profit on

it. So, the lack of flexibility can

definitely suck. Again, this part really

matters on what stage of life you're in.

And the last con, and this really

depends on the market that you're in,

but home prices could stay flat or even

dip shortterm. This is something that I

noticed myself. Like, I bought my home a

little over 2 and 1/2 years ago. The

first 6 months to a year, the home went

up a lot in value, but since then, it's

been kind of flat. And overall, I've

gotten a really good return on my

initial down payment and investment. So,

I'm not complaining by any means, but I

was surprised to see how flat the home

price can sit for, you know, a year, if

not a little bit more. But again,

definitely in the green there, and I'm

very grateful for that. So, those are

the cons of buying a home. Now, let's

talk about the pros and cons of renting.

So, the first pro of renting, and this

was kind of the flip of owning a home is

that you have flexibility. You can move

cities, change apartments, you can

downsize easily. Once you sign that

one-year lease, you can even get out of

it, too, if you want to pay the cost for

that. Like, you can move around pretty