Besides taxes, there is another sense in which outside circumstances can break your "rent control" model of home ownership with 30 year mortgage. Here in Oklahoma, insurance rates have skyrocketed in the last couple years. I now pay more in homeowner's insurance monthly than either my principle or interest payment (though perhaps not both together - yet). And I have a 4.something% mortgage.
I suspect it has or will soon reach the point where the Kelly criterion says mathematically I'd be better off to self-insure - if I didn't have a bank loan.
It's not just insurance (which is likely also weather-related); after a fluke super-cold Winter we had, our natural gas companies incurred a huge wholesale market bill which they've passed on to customers. I have a family member who owns his house free and clear whose gas bill went up so much he could no longer afford to heat his house. The gas company still tried / is trying to assess a one-time very large retroactive fixed fee even though he turned off his gas.
My point, I guess, being even homeowners are not totally insulated from being screwed over by outside market forces.
I suspect it has or will soon reach the point where the Kelly criterion says mathematically I'd be better off to self-insure - if I didn't have a bank loan.
It's not just insurance (which is likely also weather-related); after a fluke super-cold Winter we had, our natural gas companies incurred a huge wholesale market bill which they've passed on to customers. I have a family member who owns his house free and clear whose gas bill went up so much he could no longer afford to heat his house. The gas company still tried / is trying to assess a one-time very large retroactive fixed fee even though he turned off his gas.
My point, I guess, being even homeowners are not totally insulated from being screwed over by outside market forces.