Home ownership is highly valued where I live. Here's the thinking:
1. Owning a home is your ticket to avoiding poverty in old age. You'll always have a place to live.
2. You can bequeath your home to your children when you die, giving them financial solidity.
3. Commuting up to two hours each way on public transportation is worth it, if doing so means you can afford a home. (The only affordable homes are far from work.)
4. Living close to your family (parents, siblings) is more important than being able to take a better job that would involve moving. So being tied down to a geographical area is not a concern.
5. Renting is just throwing your money away.
Curiously, this last point is rarely accompanied by an understanding that the calculation depends on how much the rent is and how much the mortage is (or the opportunity cost of not investing, if paying outright). In other words, it's an emotional argument, borne out of innumeracy.
1. Owning a home is your ticket to avoiding poverty in old age. You'll always have a place to live.
2. You can bequeath your home to your children when you die, giving them financial solidity.
3. Commuting up to two hours each way on public transportation is worth it, if doing so means you can afford a home. (The only affordable homes are far from work.)
4. Living close to your family (parents, siblings) is more important than being able to take a better job that would involve moving. So being tied down to a geographical area is not a concern.
5. Renting is just throwing your money away.
Curiously, this last point is rarely accompanied by an understanding that the calculation depends on how much the rent is and how much the mortage is (or the opportunity cost of not investing, if paying outright). In other words, it's an emotional argument, borne out of innumeracy.