Thoughts on the Cost of Homeownership

Neil Buchanan, economist and tax prof extraordinaire, muses on how he underestimated the "non-joys" of homeowenership:

What one cannot truly appreciate until one spends a few weeks in the midst of the reality of home ownership, I think, is just how much of the economy of scale involves a reduction in transactions costs. Without a management company to do it for them, homeowners individually have to figure out how to find the best alternative to expending their own time and effort. This means finding individual contractors, calling them, having them come to the house, haggling over prices, hoping they come to do the work when promised, hoping they do the work well, and paying them. (And later, perhaps, suing them.)

Steve Clowney