Why 'Renting Is Throwing Money Away' Misses the Real Math of Homeownership

A homeowner since 2011 lays out the line items most rent-vs-buy comparisons ignore. Closing costs ran about 3% of the purchase price ($12,778). Of the initial $2,330 monthly payment, less than 21% actually reduced the loan balance — the rest was interest, taxes, insurance, and PMI, none of which build equity. Taxes and insurance have only climbed since, pushing the current payment to $2,440 even after PMI dropped off.

Maintenance is where the gap with renting widens sharply. The author itemizes tens of thousands in roof, siding, window, plumbing, and HVAC work on a 1983 house, plus a long list of discretionary improvements. The conventional 1% of home value per year is treated as a floor, not a ceiling, especially for older homes with deferred upkeep. Doing work yourself (a DIY deck at roughly half the quoted price) is presented as the main lever for keeping costs sane.

Two other costs round out the picture: utilities, which scale with square footage and have jumped 42% in two years partly due to AI data center demand on the local grid, and selling, which cost the author over $26,000 on a previous home. The takeaway is not that buying is bad, but that the popular framing of rent as wasted money ignores a long tail of expenses that don’t build any equity either.