They usually say something like owning an apartment is worse than renting an apartment and I should save up for a house because that’s better.
If you add up all the income I’ve made in my life, it’s probably nowhere close to being enough to buy a house anywhere in my city. But some trashy apartment? I think I could afford that eventuallly. I only rent trashy apartments and the landlords don’t fix anything worth a damn and I end up doing half of my own repairs - cuz at least that way it’s done properly. it annoys me every time that I fix up some rich person’s apartment, then I move, then fix up that rich person’s apartment rinse and repeat. And it’s annoying that the landlord tells me if I modify the room (ex repairs) that violates my lease and they’ll evict me.
But if I own it? At least I just fix it once.
Irl people also say if i buy it, it could have like black mold. Like dude, my current place has black mold already. I think most of the irl ppl I know are pay check to pay check, but I don’t use taxis or buy take out the way they do.
(My bathroom door literally just fell of its hinges.)
Are you in the US? It tends to be different there than elsewhere. In the UK here, it’s much more accepted to buy flats and live in them long term. In the US, it’s looked down on because people hate sharing walls, hate the monthly maintenance fee you have to pay the building, and hate the resale value and challenge with resale in general.
Apartments can be an okay purchase but tend not to be an investment like houses have traditionally been.
FWIW, in the US, the term apartment typically means rented, with all units having the same landlord. The same housing situation (shared walls, roads/parking, and possibly ceilings/floors and hallways) but with individual ownership is called a condo.
To OP, you’ll have to crunch the numbers. There is a break when point where owning becomes the better financial option, but it takes some time. Between the down payment, opportunity costs, interest, maintenance expenses, and whatever else, it will probably take a few years. There’s also a risk that it could drop in value, or even become unsalable, but that’s probably not very likely.
There’s also the extra work you have to do when you’re in charge of maintenance. As a renter, most issues are solved with 1 call to the landlord. They’ll handle whatever repairs are needed, such as calling and scheduling a contractor. You don’t even (generally) need to be home. All of that falls on you when you own.
The really big question you should ask is how long you plan to stay in one place?
at least here in sweden a bought apartment is a plenty good investment, just less so than a house probably mostly due to the difference in price.
like, a 50% increase to $70k is going to net you less profit than a 50% increase to $200k.