To think having a house with a mortgage is not 'owning your own home'

[easternuts]

We had a mortgage for 30 years before paying it off recently on our modest home. Now we consider ourselves home owners.

Dd rents because she doesn't want to pay the bank more in interest than the cost of her rent is. Yes her rent can go up but so can your mortgage.

I've had friends of mine make snide comments that dd is going on another holiday when she doesn't own her own home. This is as opposed to their own children who have recently bought with 95% or 90% mortgages in a part of the country where a 3 bed house is less than £150k.

AIBU to think that you don't own your own home just because you have a £15k down payment. DD has far beyond what is needed for a deposit but it makes zero sense in central London at present.

Not these days. And that doesn’t mean the lender owns the property- they don’t. They have a charge

Having seen family members who rent having to move house repeatedly because their landlord wants to sell I would certainly never choose renting over buying. You can quibble all you like over the technicalities of who owns it, but at least, even with a huge mortgage, as long as you can pay it, no one can make you move out.

I 100% agree. Many people look down their nose at people who rent their house (and don't own it.) But people who have mortgages are not homeowners. The bank owns the house. Surprised at the poll results!

Not if it's social housing.

I'd expect somebody who owns a home without a mortgage to explain their situation as owning their home outright.

Who knew renters were such a defensive bunch

I wouldn’t be. The poll has simply been answered by people who know some basic things about mortgages.

Like it’s not a matter of opinion whether someone owns their home or not. It’s a legal fact.

The friends are dicks for saying that sort of thing but yes I do think that with a mortgage on a property you do 'own your own home'. You are officially classed as a homeowner.

The bank owns the house.

People who say this are the same people who write "university of life" under their education info on Facebook.

You can't agree, but still be completely wrong

Try not paying the mortgage and then see if you still " own" the house

But you're wrong?

The bank does not own the house. They have a charge on the house.

If you pay for you shopping at Tesco on a credit card, does the bank own your food until you pay off the credit card?

My DH bought his flat. The rent was £400 a month but the mortgage was £260. Rent for life or A mortgage for less, for 20 years. Total no brainier. So it's 100% better for him to do that. Granted it might not be for everybody.

People have to pay for housing regardless. You may as well have an investment at the end of it?

You'd be homeless where ever you lived. Silly argument

With such a low 15k deposit and a 90-95% mortgage, you’re essentially paying for that house 2x. When you factor in fees, maintenance cost etc..you might break even. It’s a home and we all have to live somewhere, but historically you make more in the stock markets over decades than in a house given all those costs that most people never factor in.

Well, aside from the fact that you would also be having to pay rent for around 60 years, to take from the total you might make on the stock market.

I don't know anyone who has moved from renting a house, to buying a house in the same area, who has ended up paying more money for their mortgage. Everyone I know (and it's quite a few, with dc, dn etc and their friends all at this stage in life) has being very pleased to complete on their house purchase, as - even putting aside all the emotional side - their monthly payments have dropped considerably.

But as others have been said, you also have to factor in the emotional security of having your own property. Not having to move at the whim of a landlord. Your dc not having to move schools. The fact you can change things around, add bits on, fit something really useful to you, or just decorate it as you want is difficult to put a price on.

Of course they own it. Just like if you buy a car and take out a persona loan, you own the car, but you happen to have borrowed the money to buy it

People shouldnt make snide comments but that wasnt your question.

How so?

But you do, your name is listed on the deeds of the property, that’s ownership, with a long term loan to pay it off.

snide comments are always nasty but your daughters argument is daft, if you rent, likely you are interacting with a mortgage (your landlords and your paying off theirs instead of your own)

You just proved my point

If you stopped paying for the roof over your head?

It is. The bank just have a charge on it.

Because if you didnt pay your rent you would be evicted ....?

I agree, this just seems like an argument about semantics to me.

I have a mortgage and I am in a much more stable place than my friends who rent purely because they have had to move about 3-4 times over the last decade at the whim of the landlord and they have seek permission before changing their living space in many ways. Where I live, renting is way more expensive than mortgage repayments generally.

If people prefer to rent thats entirely up to them but for me, there have been significant financial and security benefits to having a mortgage over renting. We actually could pay the mortgage off now if we wanted to but choose not to as its in other better investments. My friends live in dread at suddenly finding out they have to move.