Ask Lemmy

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

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 .

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.

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.

House:

No neighbors on the other side of the wall. Although, I live in a tightly packed neighborhood. My plot of land is only 10,000ft^2. That's not the size of my house, that's the size of my YARD. I do wish we had at least an acre. Honestly, I'd love to have 3 or 4 acres that are partially wooded, but beggars and choosers and all that.

More room to spread out. When we started having kids, we had areas we could turn into toy rooms, a dedicated bathroom for diaper changes and bathing the kids. We finished the basement two years ago and that has added even more room. I have my own personal man cave now, which is nice.

It's a home. Meaning our property looks like how WE want it to look. We're lucky in that we do NOT have an HOA. My wife and I love flower gardens and most of our property is taken up with flower beds. When we turn onto our street, we see our Home, not just a house. Never had that feeling in all the years I rented apartments.

For reference, I rented from 1991 to 2006. My wife and I bought our house in 2006 and have been in it ever since. This is the longest I have ever lived in one place in my entire life. Even over and above the house I grew up in. We're about to go onto the next stage of life, as our oldest is going off the college next year and our youngest is about 3 years behind him. We might move when the youngest moves, but there are a LOT of things that will go into that decision.

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.

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.

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

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.

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)_/¯

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 would be nice, but detached houses in my neighborhood are currently selling for 3-4 million, so I'll stay in my nice affordable apartment.

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.

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.

A house is usually more confortable indeed but I do think it depends on your needs and where you're going to live. An apartment can be a bit safer, have a less expesive maintenance and be more practical overall, also HOA can be a very annoying addition to a house. On the other hand if you have kids or pets an apartment will give you headaches with noise complaints and lack of space

House because you can grow more indo in a basement than a spare bedroom

Apartment, dacha, lada. Benefits of all.

House. It's my own space and I can customize it in any way I want.

I never really lived in apartments much and now that I'm thinking about it, they suck. If there's a fire, there's no way my fatass would be able to survive.

The only time I lived in Apartments was when I was in Mainland China as a kid, there was no such thing as "Suburbs", its just all tall building in a densely populated city, or villages that doesn't have modern plumbing (and probably no internet either). I vaguely remember having to walk up the stairs because there was no elevators in the apartment. It gets very tireing.

Cell signal probably is HORRIBLE if you don't have a 5G phone, and even if you do, you are gonna have like THOUSANDS of phones all pinging the same tower, so its gonna be very slow.

And when I think about it, if you ever like need an ambulance, that extra delay of getting you to ground level might cost your life.

I don't like apartments.