To think it is weird this person doesn’t own a property?

[greytday]

This person is 55 years old from America, born in a upper class family, good education, good career from the start of their working life, never married, no kids.

They never had problems with addiction, the law or anything else that makes life more difficult than usual and has a very supportive family.

They have been in the UK for about 13 years, same jobs but with promotions, earning 80-100K a year - but they say that if they were in America they would be earning more and paying less tax so they would be financially better off.

This person don’t own a property either here or in America.

I always heard people saying that buying a home in America is a lot easier, even young people do it at the beggining of their careers.

AIBU to think this is weird?
Or am I to delusional about the American dream?

I agree with this

People are 'wierd' generally, no matter how much any attempts to categorize, or say if you do A then B it will=C and there lies your life path,etc; just doesn't work with the pesky humans.

In truth, it seems to me that you are the "wierd" one OP for expecting such an exacting formula as your guage of 'normality'.

Firstly, Americans don’t buy into the “you have to own a house to be worth something” nonsense anywhere near like we do here.

secondly, you are perpetuating this nonsense with judgemental, nosey, downright rude comments.

your way of living is not everyone else’s ideal. Your friend deserves better friends. And society deserves better than people pushing this crap

If he’s very well off he can afford to travel around renting and not being a slave to his property.
No pressure to “ get on the housing ladder” as he can do it whenever he chooses so no pressure.
Easier lifestyle with no commitment.
I get his thinking.

The wealthiest person I am friends with (7 figure income, not the 5-6 of your friend) has never owned a house. He has got so much money that he doesn’t have to think about security (he could buy cash, tomorrow) and he has so much money that the saving of owning vs renting just isn’t something he’s bothered about. He likes moving every couple of years, change of scenery.

How bizarre that you can't understand not everyone wants to own a house. We rented very happily in several countries until we were in our forties, successfully dodging a huge property crash in Ireland which would have sunk us financially, and trapped us in Ireland if we had bought. Fortunately we were renting, so we were able to escape the recession and move to Australia, where we did buy a house, because we fell in love with the country and realised we wanted to stay forever. But property ownership can be onerous, I sometimes miss the days where I could call the landlord if the boiler blew up! If I was loaded and child free I could certainly see the appeal of renting a string of luxury properties for the rest of my life (or living in a hotel!).

It's only in UK and Ireland that people have this mindset that property is your main aim in life. In Germany, for example, most people have no desire to own property in the urban areas. It's because most other countries have security of tenure and afordability, which means you are secure renting.

In certain parts of the US property isn't the investment it is over here (far less capital growth). Maybe he has a "family estate" he may well inherit one day. If he is NY or LA based many people rent to be able to move to the latest contemporary style places without the renovation costs.

This is an obvious explanation. All nicely tax detectable and all the maintenance taken care off. What's not to like.

Maybe they don't know where they see themselves in ten years time and don't want to tye themselves in. They maybe planning to retire overseas. Maybe worried it would be baggage maintaining and paying for a property in another country etc and didn't know if they would stay here move back or go somewhere else entirely.

America is a big place.
I live in a suburb of Washington DC in a house that’s pretty average by American standards (surrounded by lots of other very similar houses). To buy it today would cost $1.3-$1.4 million. To buy the same house in a suburb of a medium sized city in parts of the Midwest would cost more in region of $450-500k. Other areas it would be less. In suburbs of San Francisco, it would be about double the cost of my house.
Almost all my friends rented in the city until they married / had kids - there are a lot more large rental apartment buildings than in London, it’s common.

If he's been living and working in NYC or another expensive city he may have always lived in manhattan where it's very expensive to buy. He never got married or had kids which are life events where people often buy homes.

If he doesn't see the UK as his forever place he might not see the point in buying a home here. Some expats like knowing they could just quit their job and move home in a few weeks.

He could well have a lot of investments and savings for when he is ready to buy and, if he's from an upperclass family, he may have income from a grandparents trust or be expecting an inheritance to help him buy a home for his retirement.

Maybe they came to UK following a divorce and their former home went to an ex partner in settlement.