patrick.net

Last week I came to the realization that lo and behold, we have been renting the same house now for NINE years. Long enough to know anything and everything about the neighborhood, the neighbors, and so on. Longer than I'd say 30-40% of the homeowners have "owned" the houses they have bought on our street. Longer than any of the other renters. So its sort of ironic to me. A lot of people say they buy because they're looking for long-term stability and that a house makes them feel like they're putting down roots or whatnot. But given that we've basically done the same thing by renting- and renting for a lot less than buying, it sort of blurs that assumption. Sure- we don't own the house, but we've pocketed the savings from renting that could easily count as future house payments.

But anyway, I know for fact that out of all of our friends and co-workers, we have been in the same place for longer than ANY of them, and that includes renters and homeowners. Perhaps that makes us a bit unusual in that respect. But I'm sure others have rented for longer then that. I only know one other person who rented longer. I had a friend who had been renting the same house in SF for 14 years. It was rent controlled and one day he just up and decided to move to Portland, taking the cash he had saved with him, and bought a house free and clear up there.