[GChase]

Someone once told me buying a car straight out of college is the worst possible financial decision that you can make in life. I've seen people in the 20-30 range on here drive amazing cars, but still live in crappy apartments. Would you rather drive a junker and have a nice home that you own, or drive your Bimmer and live in a not so nice apartment? Obvious decision for me (the house) but does anyone disagree?

Note: This is hypothetical

[E90Company]

Oh c'mon now. These threads lately...

[GChase]

Originally Posted by E90Company

Oh c'mon now. These threads lately...

It's better than the 1 post wonders asking strangers to make a car decision for them...

[~XxTeexX~]

House ofc, a new car at your age is one of the worse investments in your life. Car depreciates but you build equity in the home. But at the end of the day whatever matters to you more will conquer. If youre satisfied in renting space while enjoying a nice car then hell...who cares? You can always see it as enjoy the better things in life before you die and someone can just crash into you the next day. So again imo, I would do the house but im not goona judge wrong if you choose the car.

[INFURNO]

You build 'equity' in a home only if you stay long enough... 5 years minimum? Depending on what price range you buy at. Otherwise, your home will probably depreciate as it ages. Besides, your closing costs and (eventually) listing costs will be well over $10,000 combined.

There's a neat calculator here for buy vs rent: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/b...alculator.html

I voted nice house. But IMO it depends on your house budget. A difference in ~$400 mortgage won't be dramatic in the $300,000+ range. If you're looking at ~$150k homes then yeah - IMO that money would be better placed in a house.

[ndukyh]

Financially a house is a much more wise option of course due to the fact that it is an investment that can give good returns but some people may not have enough money to put down on buying a home straight out of college. Beyond that many of us move often and so buying a house would not be reasonable because if you end up selling 2 years down the line it would be pointless. Due to those reasons, I purchased a car I like which wasn't that expensive anyway. I paid the same price as someone who buys a brand new Accord.

[John 070]

Under normal circumstances, house. But you can lose big on a house nowadays, which nobody seemed to understand 6-7 years ago. Think about it, put 20% down on a house, finance the rest. That's a highly-leveraged position.

If you're single and moving around often, my recommendation is to get a decent car, brand-new Altima or Subaru or whatever, and save the rest like you're saving for a house. In general a person would rather have a nice house over a nice car. But that doesn't mean the time to buy a house is today....

[dozer008]

Well it depends on how you look at it. I'm 25 credit or lack there of can be a problem at my young age. I had a 2002 Honda civic and mostly paid everything cash untill I started looking into my future. I actually financed my car to build credit to be able to buy a house within the next 3 years or so. I didn't buy a brand new car though let somebody else take the hit. CPO is a great way to go. Different strokes for different folks

[E90Company]

Originally Posted by GChase

It's better than the 1 post wonders asking strangers to make a car decision for them...

Well this thread is asking for a life decision in a way.

[GChase]

Originally Posted by E90Company

Well this thread is asking for a life decision in a way.

I'm not asking; this is all theoretical

[E90Company]

Originally Posted by GChase

I'm not asking; this is all theoretical

You are still asking the community which you prefer/would go for, hypothetical or not. Next time post in Off-Topic discussions because this has nothing to do with the E9X platform and will hopefully get moved. Tired of this clutter in the general section.

[RicheyBMW]

Choose what makes you happy.

[GChase]

Originally Posted by E90Company

You are still asking the community which you prefer/would go for, hypothetical or not. Next time post in Off-Topic discussions because this has nothing to do with the E9X platform and will hopefully get moved. Tired of this clutter in the general section.

Why are you getting so mad? Sheesh. And yes the topic includes the demograph of folks who drive bimmers (sorry I didn't specifically say e9x) but live in okay apartments. I don't see how this is off topic at all in the "general" e9x section, considering this is the part of the forum that I am active on.

[Kayani_1]

I am a automotive enthusiast so I waste money on my hobby which is cars. However, anyone with some financial sense will tell you house over car any day.

[AddictedToBavarian]

House, for sure.

[DriftDreamzSS]

House for sure, but you can still get a decent car as long as you make enough to still save. I didn't go to college but bought a really clean 2 year old G35 around college grad age and was still able to get a good loan for a nice house at 25.

[E90Company]

Originally Posted by GChase

Why are you getting so mad? Sheesh. And yes the topic includes the demograph of folks who drive bimmers (sorry I didn't specifically say e9x) but live in okay apartments. I don't see how this is off topic at all in the "general" e9x section, considering this is the part of the forum that I am active on.

This section of the forum is for topics about the E9X. Your thread has absolutely nothing to do with the E9X and should belong in the off-topic discussions. Nobody is mad, and not everyone lives in an "okay" apartment like you seem to be alluding to. You make it seem like you have to either have one or the other, when most of these cars are under 30k used.

[GChase]

Originally Posted by E90Company

This section of the forum is for topics about the E9X. Your thread has absolutely nothing to do with the E9X and should belong in the off-topic discussions. Nobody is mad, and not everyone lives in an "okay" apartment like you seem to be alluding to. You make it seem like you have to either have one or the other, when most of these cars are under 30k used.

I didn't know someone could get so worked up over something so little

[E90Company]

Originally Posted by GChase

I didn't know someone could get so worked up over something so little

Continuous assumptions I suppose...

[Eternal]

Is this really a decision? I am not to sure it is a one or the other thing. You can get a pretty nice car for $400-$500 a month. A house on the other end in the $200,000 range, with all the expenses, will run you around $2000 or so a month. So if you can afford the $2000 a month, you can probably afford the $500 a month. If you cannot afford both, you can probably only afford the car. Therefor it is not really a one or the other decision.

[tmo24]

Times have changed. A house in today's environment may not be your wisest choice. It's kind of like leasing vs buying a car. At the end of your 3 years, you basically rented a car. Same with a house, but it's typically a year lease. Now, at the end of buying a car in 5 years, you may or may not have equity in it. Same with a house. The difference is that you might end up losing $100k in a house vs a few grand in a car. This is obviously if you plan on moving and selling the house. If you plan on staying forever, then you will probably have equity. But if you want to move, you better hope you have equity when you sell or you are screwed. With a car, if you plan to sell, you may lose a few grand. Not the end of the world. Buying a home right out of college may be a worse decision than buying a car. If you end up not being able to afford the house for some reason, you destroy your credit and ability to buy again for a few years. If you end up not being able to afford the car, you can sell it for a small loss or try to have someone take over payments etc.

[J02 335i]

Buy a decent used E9X and a decent used/resale house, best of both worlds. If this isn't possible, buy a Civic and a house.