Renters are happier (and thinner) than homeowners
Filed under: Home, Real Estate, Wealth
What if home ownership really isn't the American Dream? A research paper released by a real-estate professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School starts the debate. And with these delicious findings: Renters are not only happier than the average homeowner, but they're thinner, too.Oh, sweet, sweet vindication. I'll take it any way it comes.
During the housing boom, I would often shake my head and wonder aloud how home prices could continue to grow, or why it was that they were taking any kid off the street, slapping him in a suit and calling him a mortgage broker. The orgy of greed and building just didn't seem sustainable. It was painfully obvious common sense: If every house in California sells for half a million and up, where are the millions of non-movie stars going to live?
For this, I was often called a bitter renter.
"The average homeowner, however, consistently derives more pain (but no more joy) from their house and home," writes Grace Wong Bucchianeri, an assistant professor at Wharton. The report also says that homeowners, on average, spend less leisure time than those who don't own homes.
Oh, and here's the knife twist: According to this report, the average homeowner is about 12 pounds heavier than those who rent.
Bucchianeri says the report isn't intended to be a warning against home ownership, but rather to start a conversation about the often unquestioned idea that home ownership is for everyone. Clearly, as this housing bust has shown, it isn't. You can see the whole report (PDF) here.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
6-15-2009 @ 8:19PM
brenda said...
ha ha ha
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6-15-2009 @ 9:02PM
Piper said...
Ya, but I would bet that the "average" homeowner is a lot older too. So there is your 12 pounds. It would have been nice to read some more detail about this report.
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6-15-2009 @ 8:49PM
dean said...
This research is flimsy PR, at best: I suspect the real reason owners are 12 pounds heavier is simply that most owners are older, and with age comes pounds. Almost everyone starts out renting, and only with the years can one usually afford to buy. Of course renters as a group are thinner: they are also profoundly younger, it's that simple. Happier? Again, they are younger, and not burdened with the additional responsibilities of life, of which home ownership may be a part; but the home-owning part is not the source of less happiness. It may, in fact, be the one bright spot in an otherwise responsibilty-burdened middle-age.
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6-15-2009 @ 11:28PM
Amy said...
You have a very good point: correlation does not always mean causation.
6-16-2009 @ 12:36AM
Huck said...
This is a very profoundly astute observation by dean....and 100% on the mark. There is no such correlation between homeownership and renters that is remotely possible to determine without numerous and major statistical studies regarding age groups, regional locations, income levels and the locality of rents vs ownership pricing...etc...etc.. There are just too many variables for this kind of a comparison to be accurate. This kind of journalism is just controversial-provoking garbage. Good job dean...you caught that one right on the money. Dr Huck
6-16-2009 @ 4:39AM
Valerie said...
Thank you, Dean. From the first sentence reporting the conclusion of the statistics, it was very clear the author needs to go back to school. Really an ignorant waste of time to ponder.
6-15-2009 @ 9:00PM
Joyce Wizda said...
I totally agree. We have rented for many, many years and we are very happy. Because we have a great landlord and low rent, we are able to vacation more, see more shows, and in general have fun. It's not our problem when the hot water heater breaks or the roof leaks, etc. We love our cats and even have it easy when we go away, the landlord cares for them. Also, we are not overweight!!
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6-16-2009 @ 3:01AM
Valerie said...
Geez, your "logic" blows me away. "It's True" is such a stupid endorsement of this sham called research that only an idiot would arrive at the conclusion the results must be since every thing the researcher said is true about us. Give me a break; go back to school, or stop writing such tripe on these responses. You are probably a renter because you spend so much money on travel and immediate gratification, you just don't get planning for the future, establishing a means of continuing this life of the happy renters...what happens when you are old AND flabby and no longer pulling in the same income. That rent you'll be paying out of your limited income because you didn't plan ahead will be a major quash on your traveling - and you're food budget will having you eating your words. Geez.
6-16-2009 @ 5:39AM
BamBa said...
You're either very lucky, i.e. landlord happens to be your parent or landlord wishes he/she was your pa, and therefore you're still lucky. What happens if the building is sold for one of some of the numerous life happenings??? Hope that you've saved some of the "luck". (Not just in snapshots of you on the beach in Saint
-Tropez!) LOL
6-15-2009 @ 9:05PM
Richard Shames said...
Except for a few years I have been a renter all my life. (I sold my condo at a loss to get out of it.) I can move when I like,
have everything repaired for free by the complex and live in an apartment that's quiet and in the best neighborhood in Nashville. The apartment was remodled with new appliances and new carpets. I have a pool outside near my apartment and can walk to shopping and the YMCA.
I don't have any debt and my partner and I are able to live with plenty of comforts including eating out and going to shows (own two cars outright.) on two social security checks. These two checks are not large but we learned to pay our bills the same day they arrive and budget the rest of the money.
I do try to work in the fall for extra money. Renting is the way to go!
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6-15-2009 @ 9:13PM
Lauren said...
Renters are thinner because they are younger.
This is total bunk. Apartments have cockroaches, noise, and lack of space. Homeownership is the American dream. If I had the money , I would own 5 homes.
My grandparents never owned a home and they died in that lousy apartment.
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6-15-2009 @ 9:24PM
Laurel said...
I love this! I am 61 years old, have been there, done that, and for the last 10 years have rented a home. I supposed if I hadn't divorced after 20 years of marriage, or hadn't made the big mistake of paying cash for a house once, I'd be sitting mortgage free right now, however, considering my own mistakes and lifestyle, and my bit of wanderlust (from Maine to North Carolina), I love my rental home. I live in a very close knit neighborhood, in the middle of a double cul de sac. My neighbors are great and run the gamut from older, long time homeowners, to some younger renters with children, and us. We love it. No problems, no taxes, moderate rent, no air conditioning repairs. We have our bit of a yard that we decorate with flowers and plants, grow a few tomatoes, have our 3 little shih tzus, and our grandchildren and live quite happily, thank you very much, in a rental house.
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6-15-2009 @ 9:32PM
Judson said...
You, Sir, are an idiot. When I was young I read a book named "The Good Earth", by Pearl Buck. The general principle was that owning the land was the only way to rise from the level of poverty to control of your life. I reasoned that if I owned my own house that this would be good, but if I owned many houses, (and let some one else pay the payments, -that would be YOU!) than in my old age I would have something to carry me though. I have never wavered from my philosophy and the payments from my "houses" will be worth more than ten times my social security. I grant that this is not for everyone, to deal with the problems of many houses, but only a fool would not want to have the prideand financial security, even with the work, of owning their on home.
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6-15-2009 @ 9:47PM
bev said...
As the rents go up and up and you have nothing to say about it, as the other tenants in your apt building are noisy and you can't do anything about it EXCEPT MOVE AGAINNNNNNNNNN. As you don't have a private yard to relax in, bbq that have privacy and you can invite relatives over and know you won't be watched out the window by all your nosey tenant sharers. You own a home and you have equity and don't in an apt. ITS YOURS, not someone else you are paying for it for them to have it. Tell me again why renting is so great. (didnt think so)
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6-15-2009 @ 10:00PM
davie said...
for all you D-A's paying your house payments and your yearend tax's keep on keeping on and by all America needs nobody ever nerver owns a part of America
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6-15-2009 @ 10:14PM
birdlady said...
I have owned a few properties and have sold a few. I have cashed in on my equity at various times enjoying my tax deductions along the way, have had my tenants rents pay the mortgage even though I rented below market rent.The equity has paid for my cars, vacations, etc. It sure beats worrying what the rent will go to, if we will have to move, hammering nails into the wall, etc etc. Maybe they are 12 pounds heavier because they are comfortable and secure with their lifestyle ;-)
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6-15-2009 @ 10:14PM
Lilly said...
Sadly I am a home owner who is about to become a renter. My 49 year old disabled husband couldn't get adiquite life insurance due to his health, He passed away and I lost over $2000 a month income. Can't collect a single cent from his disability income and Social Security said I can't collect his SSDI until I am 60. So with my house up for forclosure and all the loans we had having my name on them, I shall rent until my credit improves enough to use my VA Loan to buy a house I can afford in a few years.
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6-15-2009 @ 11:40PM
Reanna said...
I'm sorry for your loss.
6-16-2009 @ 7:21AM
Melanie said...
Seventeen years ago I bought my first home with less than $5k down. I had a low mortage that was cheaper than I could have ever rented for once housing prices jumped. I sold it 4 years ago and walked away with a check for $152k. How many renters can do that?
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6-15-2009 @ 10:22PM
Coopski said...
All I can say about this study and this article is...yes and no, up to a point. While I agree with the writer about the ridiculous boom that I was a part of...and being as smart as I am...saw was insane and unsustainable, I cashed out in May '05....selling the condo I'd paid $112K for in 2002 for a tidy $376K the same afternoon I put it on the market. I took the money and ran...but I personally would NEVER have paid that for my condo. I've been renting since then...until NOW when it's crazy NOT to buy. Re: owners being fatter...it is largely due to the avg. age of owners...they tend to be older and therefore heavier (as well as more likely to own more than one house). Re: renters being able to pick up and move...HOW? If you've signed a lease for a year and want to move after 4 months....you're still contracted to pay that rent until the lease expires so I don't know how you just pick up and move.
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