All Forum Posts by: Ren McKnight

Thank you, everyone, really appreciate the feedback and input. Very helpful!

Yes, I am looking to stay local, at least for the first one. Given everything mentioned above / general market trends, I am going to look further into "house hacking" using an FHA loan in the NYC area. Easier said than done I'm sure, but there may be something there! Thanks again.

Hello everyone, happy holidays and Merry Christmas to those who celebrate! This is my first time posting on the forum; I have a background in finance but am new to real estate. Curious of everyone's thoughts on the recent WSJ article(s) calling right now the worst time ever to buy a house. Does that apply to buying rentals as well?

https://www.wsj.com/economy/housing/theres-never-been-a-wors...

Obviously, today's higher home prices and higher rates mean that as the owner of a newly purchased unit, you would have to charge much more for rent, which makes it difficult to make the numbers work versus owners who bought their houses a few years back and have much lower mortgage payments (and thus can charge less rent). Renting is currently cheaper than buying because renters are renting from owners who bought during a low-interest rate environment and when home prices weren't so high. Am I understanding that correctly? Have people on the forum been making it work with units they've bought over the last year or so, or are people sitting it out for a bit? 

Of course, if/when rates go down, the competition for houses (from other landlords, normal people, and investment firms) could go up even more, making it even more difficult to buy something, right? In other words, generally speaking, is this a situation where you would still pull the trigger on the right deal if possible (acknowledging that the "right" deal is extremely subjective), because things won’t necessarily improve much in the near to medium term?

Thanks all for any input!