The Value of Our Priorities: Renting vs Ownership

5 min readAug 19, 2021

“We all Rise and Fall on the Value of Our Priorities”

Back in 2015, I lived in a 5 bedroom 2 bathroom row home in Columbia Heights (CD).

Juxtapose to the hood, this gentrified area was walking distance from multiple city buses and WMATA metro. Even better, the area was restaurant accessible.

When I think millennial living, this was probably it.

Small bedrooms, shared bathrooms and large receiving space; we were technically living on top of each other.

The total cost for this experience — $1,082.54 per month plus utilities and internet for an extra $234.93. It typically remember it as $1,250 but since I track everything in excel; it was more.

One too Many Roommates for Me

With five tenants in the main part of the home and two more in the basement, the landlord must have brought in $7,500 minimum in income. He/she was making a killing. On average, a home of this caliber if purchased early enough would have a $4,000 mortgage max. In summary, he or she was likely netting $3,500 per month.

When the lease ran its course and the home was going in for renovations, I had to find a new space pronto. Better yet, I needed to get into home ownership.

Onward to Maryland for Value Housing

Although not a hot spot and severely lacking in the food scene, I settled in Upper Malboro, Maryland. My portion on the rent in a 2/2 with more space and a fireplace was $550 per month total, plus average utilities $143.54.

While the price would spike here and there for utilities, it was a welcome change of pace and I was able to focus on my debt repayment priorities. I ended up boosting my investments and even traveled to Canada and Brazil.

By Fall of 2016, I became a homeowner in the same condominium.

Here are the three lessons that I learned:

1. Moving further from the Lux Brings You Closer to Your Goals

Life Hack — don’t be afraid to live differently.

After reading an article on Business insider about a guy who instead of cutting back minor expenses, took the guillotine to his housing costs, I decided to do the same.

You can cut a little bit here and there, however you will find more value adding discipline to your housing luxury needs. At the time in 2016, I had friend paying on average $1,600 in 1/1 or even $1,300 in 2/2 since it was close to the hot spots.

Below, you will find details on my total housing costs that helped me toward my priorities over the last 5 years. Additionally, you will see why home ownership benefited me in the long run:

2. The Deluxe 2/2 Apartment in the Sky has a Price tag

DC is one of those place that makes you feel like you are living the entitled life.

Great views, big city and affluent millennials but there is a price tag to all of it. While they were paying the deluxe price; people where neglecting investing and paying off their debts. So for the last five years, they were one a very picturesque decline without any filters.

After a couple years, night life dies down and you rather be home relaxing versus tripling up and working to pay the rent.

Please remember that all those luxury amenities often g o under used have a price attached. In the table below, you will see that my mortgage and HOA fees stayed relatively consistent. I even heard that some were paying upward to $4,000 for a 2/2.

From 2016–2021, the median rent in DC was 171% more than the amount of my condo.

The graph covers the flow of the rental market in DC during that same period. When people think renting is better than ownership, I question their sanity.

3. Prioritizing Time

“Ownership gives you access to more”

The YOLO motif derailed a lot of people. I was saving more than 150% versus people who decided to rent. Do you know what I did with the money?

I paid debt, invested, reduced my taxes, invested some more, traveled and purchased a home. Serious, I had nothing but options.

Debt by Choice

Subconsciously, every time we cued up the YOLO song; we slowly shifted toward a narrative of excess and exclusion. The worse part is that we lost the function of time.

Even if someone said they were traveling to a different countries every year for the last five year pre-pandemic, I would have them beat. Throw in 2 countries per year and I would still have them beat. Cutting back my housing expenses, allowed me to travel to over 14 countries since 2016.

Millennials are struggling to keep up and it shows. It doesn’t have to be that way.

A millennial couple increased their net worth from zero to $500,000 in 4 years by making 5 strategic money decisions BUSINESS INSIDER, WRITTEN BY ANNE-LYSE WEALTH

I realized that if we truly prioritized our lives toward what was truly meaningful for us, everything else would fall into place. That’s the beauty of ownership. While I under stand the flexibility of renting, there is still no place like home.

If you want to know how much home you can afford, check out our resource section for tools you can us. Or click on the link, the choice is all yours.