“There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort.” — Jane Austen

Apartment RenovationsSome people live in cities, specifically New York, where it’s common to rent long term. For example, I have a friend that’s been in a rent controlled apartment in the Haight section of San Francisco since the mid-nineties. Buying a condo is a goal, but she’s comfortable with her space and the price of this rented apartment. She is also self-employed and works from home and has customized certain aspects of its form to allow for better function.

After I saw this post from My Open Wallet, it got me thinking about the reason that people dump money into a rental. She writes, “Lots of New Yorkers ARE willing to spend a lot of money fixing up property that belongs to someone else… So many people here are style-conscious types who work in artsy, design-y fields, and even if they can’t afford to buy apartments, they want some control over their homes. Also, given the space constrictions we face, it’s no surprise people often create built-in shelves and loft beds that sometimes have to be left behind for the next tenant.”

Shortly after she wrote that post, an article called Sinking Your Money into a Rental by Vivian S. Toy appeared in the New York Times. I was blown away by the stories of these renters and the amount of money they “invested” to make their apartment their home.

Toy writes, “Ms. Miller, a public relations executive, said she had spent about $4,500 to paint every room of her apartment, to replace the generic light fixtures with ones more to her liking, to retrofit three walk-in closets for her collection of vintage clothes and to build a closet for her 200-plus pairs of shoes.”

She also interviewed this gay couple, “When they signed the lease for a duplex they wanted in Greenwich Village three years ago, T. R. Pescod and Tim O’Brien knew that it would have to be gutted to suit them. It took four months and $100,000 to turn the apartment into the kind of home they wanted.”

In their mind they have justified it economically. I’m not following their math. Is it worth spending money to improve an apartment that you’ll likely leave behind someday and not benefit from any return on investment? Or does the emotional value outweigh the expense of the renovations? What do you think?