True cost of home ownership. Great info graphic!

[HeatSeeker]

Does this include the assumption that home values stay stable?

Here I would rather rent than buy at this point. I can pay rent+utilities for under $600. You can get a nice condo for that, but of course they come with extra expenses and prop taxes.

[Luckybustert]

I disagree. I security deposit is a necessity to move in. While you live there, it is cash not available to you, and will only be returned to you when you move out. in my experience, it gains no interest as well.

Although you may get it back in the end, you might also not. I have had shady landlords claiming damage that took months to get the full deposit back and that was a lot of time trying to get that resolved.

We never counted on having our security deposit returned to us. It always was, but there are a lot of landlords out there who will try to nickel and dime you to death over normal wear and tear so maybe we just got lucky.

[nadine64]

Thanks for the info! Very interesting.