“Are Homeowners Happier than Renters?” — Rational Reminder Podcast

Latest episode (170) looks at the research from a non-financial perspective:For decades, owning a home has been seen as a hallmark of the ‘American dream’ and a major life milestone. While we take it for granted that home ownership is good, we make the argument in today’s episode that, from the perspective of subjective well-being, owning a home isn’t necessarily the key to happiness. This conversation covers the non-financial aspects of homeownership and why owning a home isn’t necessarily superior to renting one. This is supported by data from a number of different studies that describe the relationship between experienced happiness and life evaluation, and how the decision to buy or rent relates to effective forecasting, for example. Benjamin unpacks concepts like focalism, hedonic adaptation, and buyer’s remorse, as well as social comparison and happiness when it comes to material purchases like homes. He concludes with the following words of wisdom: buying a house will not make you happy, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad decision. […]https://rationalreminder.ca/podcast/170https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpTRkL7LKIYMain topic starts about half-way in. via /r/PersonalFinanceCanada https://ift.tt/3ajJVQd