Compare and Contrast essay of Living at Home and Living in an Apartment

Home vs. Apartment Living
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Generally, a variety of factors come into play when it comes to selecting the place where one wants to live. To most people, factors such as comfort and the simplicity greatly influence the decision on whether to reside at home or rent an apartment. In the same way, other people consider the size of the living space available to them, flexibility and cost as more important when it comes to determining whether to stay at home or lease an apartment. Nevertheless, both renting an apartment and residing at home have similarities and differences and hence, the need for the concerned party to diligently weigh the merits of each alternative (David, 2010). Thus, based on this background, this paper seeks to critically compare and contrast residing in an apartment with residing at home.
Admittedly, residing at home is associated with a number of advantages. To begin with, when one resides at home they enjoy the benefit of not paying any utility bills. Most of the people who live at home especially students usually stay with their parents or guardians who foot almost all the utility bills that accrue. For instance, parents are naturally responsible for water, gas, electricity, telephone, and internet service costs, and only in rare circumstances are children required to assist in footing the bills. Consequently, the person who resides at home spends little or no cash on utility bills compared to an individual who lives in an apartment. Additionally, a person who lives at home spends less on foodstuffs since the head of the home is usually responsible for providing for the family. Contrastingly, an individual who resides in an apartment has to pay for their own food, rent and foot their utility bills and hence, incur more costs than a person who lives at home (Roberts, 2008).
Secondly, residing at home is associated with higher levels of certainty than residing in an apartment. Ordinarily, having a home implies that an individual or his family owns a house which they have fully paid for and hence, the assurance of residing in that house undisrupted for a lengthy period of time. On the contrary, the element of certainty disappears when it comes to residing in an apartment since the owner of the apartment rents it out for only a short period of time. Similarly, the owner of the apartment can terminate the lease contract by citing indiscipline on the side of the occupant. Likewise, unforeseen financial difficulties can render it impossible for the tenant to raise the required amount, thereby leading to his or her eviction by the apartment owner (David, 2010). Therefore, r...