I don't get the rich getting richer in the title, how does owning a home (for the vast majority of people, on a mortgage) make someone rich? About 65% of the Canadian population are homeowners. 65% of the population owning 90% of the wealth isn't that surprising or that wrong. What's truly wrong is numbers like 1% of the population owning 30% of the total wealth in the US.

It's always the homeowner boogeyman when in reality the problem comes from the government spending money wherever and not applying strict foreign home purchasing laws that keep increasing home prices. People who own one or two houses are not rich and are very unlikely to drive a Porsche, and even there, if it is an individual who owns that property, that person will have to pay their fair share of taxes on their income and property taxes.

[–] eezeebee@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Imagine paying over $1000 for rent every month, except that if you decide to move, you (theoretically) get that money back, and (likely) even more.

Now imagine that same $1000 going to someone else and you never see it again.

[–] alsimoneau@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

1000$ in rent! Where are you living that is so cheap?

[–] eezeebee@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah I did go a bit low. My actual rent is more than that.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 year ago

One of these days, a banana is actually going to cost that, and then this joke will no longer work. Hopefully not for decades though.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 1 year ago

A basement suite in rural Saskatchewan. I'm guessing that's about the going rate.

[–] independantiste@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't see how that addresses what I said in my comment?

[–] eezeebee@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm not disagreeing with your comment btw. I was speaking to your question about the title.

In the eyes of a renter, homeowners are rich. It's (unfortunately) an amazing investment with a very high barrier to entry.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Funny enough, real estate preforms worse than just an index fund, usually. The difference is that a mortgage makes not regularly paying in much more difficult.

But yeah, the underclass tends to rent.

[–] LeFantome@programming.dev 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The other differences are leverage, tax sheltering, and the low cost of borrowing. How many people can borrow $1,500,000 at 5% to buy an index fund in a tax shielded account?

Also, don’t forget that you get to “invest” your rent money when you buy a home.

Real estate returns are higher.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah, but the return rate for stocks over the last century has been 10% per annum. I'm not making it up, this is what an actual financial advisor will tell you about the relative performance of real estate and investing, and why one or the other might be right for you.

You shouldn't really be leveraging yourself to buy into an index fund. If you can buy a house outright that's also a better deal than a mortgage.

[–] Lobreeze@lemmy.world -2 points 1 year ago

So you want everyone to rent?

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