• seejur@lemmy.worldEnglish
    12·
    1 year ago

    If you have a mortgage, you own what you paid (except interests).

    If you bankrupt and are unsolved on a mortgage, and they take the house, the house is sold in an auction, the bank gets what’s remaining in the mortgage, but the rest is yours.

    • thoro@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      3·
      1 year ago

      The point being that your place of residence, the place where you possibly stake your roots and raise your family, is not fully yours and can just as easily be taken away if you suffer any type of financial misfortune or fail to keep up financially with the market around your community.

      The relationship to your lender is very similar to a renter’s relationship to their landlord.

      Equity is a benefit, surely, but indebting yourself for 30 years in a location you may have compromised for is the other side of it. And your relationship to a higher authority who truly owns your property remains (until the debt is paid, of course).

      Inherently, it all comes back to private property and one’s relationship with its owners.

      • sgtgig@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        The relationship to your lender is very similar to a renter’s relationship to their landlord

        Is it though? Landlords typically have hot opinions on what you do with the property. Banks don’t care so long as you don’t literally destroy it. When I rented I felt stifled in things like modifying my place, adopting a dog, painting walls, etc. Owning my place feels a lot better even if it costs a lot more.

        I get what you say kind of from a financial sense but even then it’s radically different. You can pay extra every month to get a mortgage finished early. Each year you get more and more equity and are in a better financial spot. When a lease renews your landlord has the option to say “I want more money, so you have to pay extra now” or just straight up refuse to let you live there anymore, and at the end you have nothing. And a foreclosure is a much lengthier process with more outs for a homeowner than an eviction is for a renter.