Ask Lemmy

I don't think I have much of a preference on apartment or house per se, but I want to live somewhere I own. I've spent too much of my life pissing a portion of each paycheck into the wind just to subsidize a landlord, and there's no value retention once my lease is up.

The only apartments that are for sale in my area are all astronomically expensive, catering to mainly wealthy foreign investors and their rich shithead kids who come here for college. Condos are a bit cheaper, but many of them are ancient, falling apart, tiny, and still going for $800,000+, so I've been looking at houses outside of the city because that's all I can really afford.

Even if it's nothing fancy, it'd be mine. I'd be taking care of it and get whatever nice things I want for me, and not for the leech who owns the property and invests only the bare minimum.

When I was alone: apartment. More economical. Did not want to pay for a lot of space I did not use.

Girlfriend and two dogs later: looking for a house.

All else being equal, in terms of structure and property itself, I'd rather live in a detached house.

But all else isn't equal. I'll sacrifice my ideal building type in order to live in the specific neighborhood I want to live in, within easy walking distance of amenities like parks, groceries, world class restaurants, bars, and things like that, all while being able to get around by bike, mass transit, or even easy/cheap hailed vehicles like taxis or Ubers. And that means I'm living in a dense urban area, where detached houses are rare and prohibitively expensive.

So I look for neighborhoods where I'd actually like to live, then look for places there with the right number of bedrooms and floor space, and then look to see what is within a feasible budget for myself. The first time I bought a home, I would've preferred to rent, but the building we liked in the neighborhood we liked happened to be condos rather than rentals.

But housing is a package deal. And house versus townhouse/rowhouse/brownstone versus low rise condo versus high rise condo versus apartment versus someone's accessory dwelling unit is only part of that package. And the other parts are more important to me.

House. I've accepted the fact that neighbors exist. But the further away they are, the better.

The pros and cons between either is entirely up to preference.

Apartment

Pros:

• Not having to worry too much about maintenance, as there are teams of maintenance people to call to have them handle problems.
• If you live small and do not see the point of a home, apartments are for you.
• Designated parking lots or areas
• Some places can be affordable
• Some cool things can be offered like pools, some community related things .etc
• You may have some leniency for when you're billed for rent/utilities

The Depends:

• Bad or Good landowners determine how well you're going to live in an apartment. There's really no strong pro or con because it can vary. You could live in an apartment atmosphere and the landowner doesn't give two shits about you or anyone else except themselves. But you could also live in an apartment atmosphere where the landowner does care about everyone.

• Bad or Good Tenants can also be a dealbreaker. Good tenants are the ones who leave you the hell alone and actually do not try breaking the lease agreements, they're nice and can be approached without conflict. Bad tenants, everyone knows these types. Blasting music for all to hear, having barking/needy dogs that whine and whimper so you can hear them. Vandalizing the building or in general. Having maintenance tied up because they can't stop being a problem. Having to have police called multiple times.

• Lease agreements can vary, some may make you feel like you're more restricted than usual, like I know my apartment management don't really like the idea of holes in walls, including ones made by pushpins. They sometimes will do random check arounds of the apartment. It really depends on the agreement.

Cons:

• Finding affordable apartments
• Finding apartments that have accessibility, like places to go, jobs to work at .etc
• Not enough tenant protections
• Sometimes you don't really feel like you're at home
• Options like finding different ISPs may be limited

House

Pros

• You are entitled to do with as you wish, no neighbors except neighborhoods, you have your own rules
• Your property applies to above
• You build equity
• Family expansion is far safer

Cons

• Good luck finding an affordable home
• You are subjected to higher rates/bills for utilities
• You are paying for EVERYTHING that happens either on the property or with the home

Is this about rent vs buy or freestanding house with yard vs unit in a high rise? Because you could rent a house and buy a condo but I know outside the us bought hirise things are often called apartments.

House because landlords are shittier than contractors on average. I want to own where I live and if someone is being a piece of shit I am free to fire them on the spot.

Also, I want space for my family and a garden.

Apartment. Houses feel like prison cells especially in ~~desolate barren primitive wastelands~~ the suburbs where everything requires a car or at least an hour of travel. Anyone with nothing to lose can break into your house and all you can do is make it too much effort. All your neighbors are thieves and will steal your mail, packages, and food orders. They'll also not care if you had an intruder, and they'll care less about how their smoke affects you. Just wear a gas mask if you don't like smoke. It's their property so you'll just need to get over it. Happy and cozy! Let's hope your work schedule doesn't change so you don't need to choose between taking out trash and being able to sleep before work. And definitely get some insurance to replace your replaceable belongings when a high schooler's still-burning joint tossed on your outdated status symbol burns your house and everything in it. Spend every day with your pets and children like it's your last. It's the current year, live like it. You don't need a glorified horse drawn carriage and a happy cozy cottage in the woods. There's no need to maintain a patch of grass to show off you don't need to farm on it. There's no need to live completely alone where no one can help if you're in need. It's unnecessary. If you can't live in a city the problem is you. Go buy an island if you need to live so primitively.

Apartment. I really hate the suburbs

Location is the most iportant, meaning that the realistic option is appartment

• Can get fresh breakfast on the week-end with a 5 minutes walk, and do not need to plan a weekly grocery trip when I have everything down the stairs

• Do not need to drive home if I get a drink

• Have access to tons of activities within a reasonable distance, no matter whether I want to learn Korean, watch stand-up comedy or listen to underground heavy metal

• Kids can quickly get some autonomy compared to suburb where road are full of cars and parents need a car to go every where.

In descending order:

1. House in the city

2. Apartment in the city

3. Cabin in the mountains

4. Homeless in the city

5. Homeless in the mountains

6. Japanese-style coffin capsule

♾️. Anything in suburbia

House.

I want to play music at a reasonable volume and not worry that I'm bothering someone. I also never want to hear my neighbors' music.

I actually love apartments, but nice big ones. I love having a gym and pool that I don't have to personally maintain, I love being up high and having a good view and a nice breeze on the balcony, and being walking distance to the metro. A detached house obviously beats the pants off a small, dark, poorly ventilated apartment with no amenities, which is probably why they cost 10X as much.

I really liked living in an apartment. Simple living is pretty nice tbh.

I would never go back to renting. I'll riot first lol.

Honestly even my best landlords sucked vs just being able to fix it myself.

I can't share my walls with people. I lived in a townhouse once. It was awful. Train tracks 10' out the back door, constantly smelling what my neighbors are cooking or smoking, and got my car broken into at least twice and the pile who did it bragged in my face about it.

Fucking people. What a bunch of bastards.

House I don’t have to hear my neighbors. I don’t have to smell them when I walk out in the hallway.

I don’t have to hear their radios blaring at all hours. If something goes wrong in the house, it’s up to me to fix it. IfI’m in an apartment, the landlord may or may not fix anything. House values normally will go up. Which means at some point down the road I can actually sell it. Get some money out of it that increase in value will account for whatI had to put into the house to keep it running. In an apartment I have nothing. I’m just literally giving the money to someone .

When in China I love a nice big apartment because that’s what most families have access to especially if you want to live downtown. Countryside houses are nice but I prefer being able to just go out and do what I want. That said, I recently was walking around the countryside with my child and it is quite nice. Only 5 drive to small city and 20 to big city.

In America I 100% prefer a big house. I’ve lived in all of the above and since most American cities suck imo I would prefer to have my own land and space. Really makes me miss living in eastern piedmont with beautiful mountain views every time you get up.

In Japan I would also want a house! Best of both worlds were you can have your own big house and live downtown. You might not have much of a yard though. My dream would be this would a backyard big enough to play with the family, grill, and hang laundry.

Depends on the location. House in a European-style suburb (grid streets, mixed-use zoning, good public transit) over apartment, but anything in an American-style suburb (long, winding streets, car-centric, Euclidean zoning) is an instant deal breaker.

Apartment, but only because I can't stand the thought of investing* in something that's stuck in one location forever.

My dream dwelling would be a houseboat. I get the benefits of owning my dwelling but retain the ability to physically relocate it.

*As if I could even afford that lol. I doubt I'm even gonna live long enough to afford a houseboat ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Definitely house, preferably owned. I rented my previous apartment and had to run a lot of jobs through the landlord. Now, if something goes wrong or if I want to hang something with screws, I can just go ahead. And I love having a back yard. Front yard meh, just work, no joy.

Downside is that my house is not exactly well maintained and it was built in the sixties. So I'll need to invest in some stuff in the next 5 to 10 years.

I'm beginning to consider the idea of having an apartment but then also a plot of land with just a shed or cottage. Something like that. I'd like to spend more time outside in most of the year but also keep the convenience of an apartment during winter. I have a house in a good location now, so it'll probably not happen unless something drastic happens. Maybe when the kids move out.