30'-34' Sailboat vs. House : If You Could Only Buy One

[barnakiel]

If I could have THE boat I want, this would be a boat. If I could not get the boat I want, I would settle for an apartment (rent, no purchase) and keep on saving money for THE boat.

b.

[Pblais]

Boats as a housing solution is not about being able to come and go as you please. If living on a boat is a choice that works vs owning a house it comes down to how easy is it for you to pick up and leave no matter where you live?

[squarpeg]

Your a student? In college? Why are you even thinking of a boat or a house? Keep those thoughts till after graduation. Don't get involved with either of those at this point in your life. You should be studying, drinking beer and getting laid. Homes and boats come later

[rowingdude]

Originally Posted by squarpeg

Your a student? In college? Why are you even thinking of a boat or a house? Keep those thoughts till after graduation. Don't get involved with either of those at this point in your life. You should be studying, drinking beer and getting laid. Homes and boats come later

If only it were THAT easy. Yes, the housing market has completely tanked here in Michigan (Detroit especially). I am carefully weighing both sides of the coin here as you can tell.

Now, having said that. I am renting for the forseeable future. As I said, this is mostly an end of school thing. I'm not really one to "plant roots", ever since Boy Scouts, I've just loved to be able to "pick up and move" on as short of notice as possible.

Since I've seen many many replies stating "house", why is a house such a good buy right now/later? What if the real estate market keeps tanking and I am stuck with my "investment". I see the logic in a house (less can go wrong), but I can also as much if not a little less risk than the maritime route...

[canuck1955]

hmmm 300,000 home amortized over 25 years and you pay $2300 month for a total of close to $700,000 and own a 25+ year old house. (Almost 800,000 over 30 years) Add in the taxes and upkeep.

36 beneteau for 100 ,000 (2000 month for 5 years Total 121,000)

7 months in the North, winter in florida! ! !

Put the 2000 a month in an account for 20 years@3% (remainder of mortgage) and you have $658,000 in the bank when your house would have been paid off.

Of course in BC Canada 300,000 gets you an apartment. A house is more like 500,000 and $3500 a month. An AVERAGE house in Vancouver is approaching $1,000,000.

[S/V Illusion]

Originally Posted by canuck1955

hmmm 300,000 home amortized over 25 years and you pay $2300 month for a total of close to $700,000 and own a 25+ year old house. (Almost 800,000 over 30 years) Add in the taxes and upkeep.

36 beneteau for 100 ,000 (2000 month for 5 years Total 121,000)

7 months in the North, winter in florida! ! !

Put the 2000 a month in an account for 20 years@3% (remainder of mortgage) and you have $658,000 in the bank when your house would have been paid off.

Of course in BC Canada 300,000 gets you an apartment. A house is more like 500,000 and $3500 a month. An AVERAGE house in Vancouver is approaching $1,000,000.

hmmmm. Sell house in 20 years for double the investment; sell the boat in 20 years for scrap. Move to Florida now!

[ADMPRTR]

Originally Posted by Arch Stanton

I think of it as the exact opposite.

Since I bought my house in 2005, I have paid the mortgage company $72,000, and spent $10,000 in maintenance, to lower my principle by $8,000.

In that same amount of time, I could have paid $50,000 or less in rent, spent $0 on maintenance, and saved $33,000 cash.

Edit: The real trick to NOT buying is to be smart with the cash your are saving.

Buying is not always a slam dunk.

Ouch, that must hurt.

My experience was quite different, because I bought just before the last boom so I made a modest amount to cover my expenses and move up to a larger place to store my junk.

It really is a timing thing, I guess. Unfortunately, it is difficult to know if you are catching a falling knife or a cresting wave. The variables are too complex.

[squarpeg]

A boat and house have little in common, other then they require you to spend money on them. It seems clear you do not really want to have a house, that is the reasonable side of your brain talking to you. What you REALLY want is a boat. You don't have to justify it to anyone here. Boats do not make sense, financial or otherwise. This is what you must come to grips with. You are not smarter to go by a boat, put the " I have to make a good decision here" out of your mind. You want the boat, we can all tell you want the boat. We all understand, everyone here has done it. It won't be a mistake, it will be a learning experience, good or bad you are going to learn something about a lot of things owning a boat, you may love it, you may hate it, you just will not know till you try it. Now tell us how much money are you planning on spending on this adventure and what boat you think your going to get. That's were the fun starts.

[Boracay]

I forgot the other downside to real estate. If you buy a shabby house as a long term renter it's important to live in it first.

That way you can do all the repairs yourself and get it into serviceable order. Paying tradespersons to fix a renter could be a quick way into bankruptcy.

And if you live in it you can find what the area and the neighbours are really like.

As a frustrated boat builder I really like houses with enough space to build a boat beside them...

[rowingdude]

squarpeg - I feel I do need to justify it. I believe there is a "right choice", and of course I do want a boat -- I mean, why else would I ask in a boat forum!?

As Boracay touched on, the houses I can afford to buy with the amount of money I'll be spending, are pretty run down. I am very good when it comes to construction, so as long as the foundation were in good order, I'd have little issue refurbishing a house.

My real contention is that given this country's state of affairs, what decision will serve me best after school and five years thereafter? I know this may sound odd, but it's the way I think and I was seeking the opinions of those who may have "been there / done that". So far, I've been reading mixed opinions. Maybe a poll would have helped , since it's been a common questions, the boat/house budget would be:

~20k

There are a LOT of foreclosures in the middle of no where around here. Many are at or under that 20k mark, but they're near zero resources and many are in dire need of rehabilitation. On the other hand, there are no boats around here either. As I've said, I'd be taking a one way trip to the coast to find a boat if I chose to go that route.

[sww914]

You mentioned this country's state of affairs and that may be a very good point. I do not wish to introduce politics into this (or any) discussion but this country's current state doesn't inspire any confidence in me. I hesitate to cry doomsday but what we have here today doesn't look sustainable. It feels like we've been farming a single crop for too long and we were able to dump chemicals into the ground to maintain production for a while but now the soil is bleached and dry and dead. I'm not an expert but that's what it feels like in Central California.

I'm sure that property prices won't begin to climb until people have money to buy houses and people won't have enough money until after the banks begin lending again.
So you can probably safely buy a boat for now and not have to worry about house prices skyrocketing again. It won't be too hard to spot.

[Doodles]

I don't have any problem with buying a boat versus a house for your first residence, but what's the rush? Why do you want to buy a boat now and incur the storage cost for the year and half until you graduate? You say you plan to be on the East coast but you don't have a job yet so you don't know where you may end up. I'd wait until I had the job and knew what my choices for liveaboard marinas were before ran off and bought a boat. Believe me there will be plenty of boats around in a year and a half to choose from.

Maybe I've missed something here, but I don't see the reason to buy either at this point in time. So, why now instead of after graduation?

[maytrix]

Originally Posted by Arch Stanton

I think of it as the exact opposite.

Since I bought my house in 2005, I have paid the mortgage company $72,000, and spent $10,000 in maintenance, to lower my principle by $8,000.

In that same amount of time, I could have paid $50,000 or less in rent, spent $0 on maintenance, and saved $33,000 cash.

Edit: The real trick to NOT buying is to be smart with the cash your are saving.

Buying is not always a slam dunk.

I agree 100%.. When my wife and I bought our house, our thoughts were completely different from what they are now. We could have easily rented for half of what our mortage costs, saving a ton.

Costs with houses (unless you buy new) just never end. There's always maintenance that needs to be done which just adds to the cost. There's a lot less costs with rent, you just need to save.

Buying can be good, but make sure you do buy, buy just what you need and nothing more. Our house is much bigger than we need for just the two of us and unnecessary space just adds to ongoing costs.

If I could go back in time, I wouldn't buy a boat instead, but I would spend a lot less on a house or rent to have saved more money for a boat.

[ADMPRTR]

Originally Posted by maytrix

Costs with houses (unless you buy new) just never end. There's always maintenance that needs to be done which just adds to the cost. There's a lot less costs with rent, you just need to save.

That is true but costs with anything that is owned never end. Houses, cars boats, you name it.

For the total amount that I pay annually on my boat I could charter a much newer, nicer comparable one for about three to four weeks a year. I as I am not a liveaboad, and only use the boat in the summer, it would make more economic sense for me to charter.

But I fell in love with the idea of owning, with the dreams of sailing off into the sunset, as it were.

In fact, last year when I realized this fact, I tried to sell my boat but the market being the way it is I could not find a buyer and was unwilling lose what "equity" I had to get rid of her. So now, I have decided to embrace the situation I am in, and pay to upgrade the issues that made me dissatisfied with the boat in the first place.

Any choice has costs associated with it.

[rowingdude]

Hi again! I wanted to emphasize that the "timeframe" is at the earliest next summer. I'm not looking to run out and buy something immediately.

Whichever way I went, I would be paying in cash and further, I would reinvest some of my cash into growing my online business, so the job quotient and "ending up" somewhere are not factors in this decision. If it were to be a huge factor, I'd switch to an English major and "teach English" somewhere - which I'd do my master's work in English if it were to be that way.

I do appreciate the help I've read here. I know it's more of a personal thing, but some of the posts by people who were in similar situations are immensely helpful!