Own vs Rent.. again..

Great picture of the guy sitting by his filthy pool, as he can't swing the $500 to fix the filter.

"But looking back, he wonders why so many friends encouraged him to buy a house."

lol, cause they all got into the delusion of trying to get sth for nothing. really, how many stopped to think that it just cannot be true that everybody that has a house (70% of the population) can become rich cause of holding the house or even worse, cause of spending $ on the house? math cannot support that optimism.

Again, the NYTimes manages to take a handful of worst-case scenario anecdotes and string them into a new twisted "truth" about home ownership.

This is less a story about buying versus renting, and more about people who buy homes that were completely inappropriate for them.

Honestly, what was the playwright thinking life would be like when he moved into a HOUSE in the SUBURBS? Hello!

And guess what -- doing home repairs isn't brain surgery. It's something you pick up with practice. Generations of American men (many of them illiterate) managed to keep their homes together just fine without formal training, and without benefit of HGTV.

"Again, the NYTimes manages to take a handful of worst-case scenario anecdotes and string them into a new twisted "truth" about home ownership."

Well, sounds like exactly what was being done on the flip side for years. All the buyers who got suckered by the "advantages" of buying... which turned out to be a lot of hot air... and now they're broke.

Were you complaining then, too?

Haha. Confirms what I've thought all along. My generation of men are not handy. That's okay, I can more than hold my own. My partner told my daughter - your mom is MUCH better at fixing things and putting things together than dad and most men.

"My generation of men are not handy."

No kidding.

I hope that the age of the metrosexual is finally waning. If you're gonna be gay, then go all the way.

When I opened the paper and saw the picture of the guy with the pool I thought it was going to be a story about a landscape architect and his idyllic victorian water features.

The story reminded me of one I read in Parents magazine, the first and only time I ever read Parents magazine. It was a cautionary tale about why you shouldn't carry bulky/heavy items in the seating area of your car. The story centered on a woman whose daughter had suffered a head injury from a collision with a tool box during a car accident. Well gee, you think, it IS stupid to carry a tool kit around in my car. This woman is clearly distraught about it. What was I thinking, driving around with all that crap at my children's feet! They could have been maimed in a fender bender! I am irresponsible! Except it wasn't a fender bender, it was a very bad accident in which the husband/father was killed.

The dude who can't buy filters for his pool? A lot of other really bad stuff happened to that guy. He would have that same look on his face if he was living in a rental. I'm not saying buying is for everyone, but if your wife leaves you to raise your two daughters solo, the friggin' pool filters are the least of your worries.

Tina
(Brooklyn broker)