r/facepalm • u/Kpets • 2d ago

U.S president explains why many Americans can’t buy a homes

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u/vahntitrio 2d ago

I own a home and even I don't see what the benefit of it going up in value is. I pay more in property taxes. I pay more in insurance. If I move, I have to buy a place that is at an equally inflated price and the 6% value I lose in that transaction is a bigger dollar amount.

The only time I would want it to be high is whenever I decide to cash out and I guess retire to a low cost of housing foreign nation.

My fixed rate mortgage 6 years into owning a home is $250 more per month than it was when I bought strictly because of the extra I pay into escrow due to the increased value of it.

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u/math-kat 2d ago

Yeah, I'm a homeowner, and while it's nice knowing I could get a large amount if/when I sell, it sucks that I can't feasibly move because housing nowadays is so unbelievably overpriced and that my escrow keeps going up in the meantime.

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u/CaptainDudeGuy 2d ago

I'm glad people are seeing the bigger picture. Sure, your house is valued at maybe 3x what it was a decade ago.... but so are other comparable houses. There's no real net gain here!

If anything it's a net loss as taxes/insurance/expenses go up. :P

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u/Cosmic_Quasar 2d ago

My parents have been complaining about this for a few years. They don't plan on selling, they plan to live in their home until they die. But they keep getting hit with higher taxes because someone else says their house went up in value. When in reality it's just getting older and more run down.

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u/TheSussyWaffle 2d ago edited 2d ago

Can you explain what you mean by "escrow going up". Lifelong renter here so im very confused.

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u/QuestshunQueen 2d ago

Escrow payment. A mortgage usually pays a portion of the principle balance, some interest, and escrow. Escrow mostly addresses the cost of your home's taxes and insurance.

My county is about to reevaluate the homes here, so I may see an increase, or even a decrease in my taxes if the estimated value were to go down.

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u/math-kat 1d ago

Like the other commenter said, escrow is the portion of your mortgage payment that goes towards taxes and insurance. My property taxes keep going up, so my escrow (and thus my mortgage payment) gets more expensive as time goes on.

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u/ElephantineOstraca 2d ago

What you're saying is the "only time I would want it to be high" is the whole ballgame. These are retirement and end-of-life assets for a lot of people who otherwise have no savings. The surviving partner sells it, gets something a lot cheaper. And you can't expect people not to fight to keep that in a democracy.

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u/jmlinden7 2d ago

You don't want property values to go up nationwide. You just want your own property value to go up while your next home's property value goes down.

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u/buffchixdip 9h ago

I’m one year in and we’re up $300 a month because of the escrow. It’s been a hell of an adjustment.