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Today,
we're talking about the top five financial benefits of home ownership.
Recently, Eric Belsky, the head of housing studies at Harvard, wrote a
book called The Dream Lives On, and in the book he lists the top five financial benefits. We definitely believe that it's great to own your own home and have it as your oasis away from the world. It's also great as an investment tool.
First off, housing is one of the few leveraged investments available to an average person. In
other words, it may be difficult for you to go into a stock brokerage
and get $250,000 or $500,000 worth of stocks and finance the rest, but
given the credit score and income level, you could do just that with
real estate. Real estate tends to appreciate over time, giving you more and more equity.
You're paying for housing anyway. Housing
is an investment you can't get away from. The only big difference is if
you own the house, you're paying down the debt and creating more and
more equity for yourself. If you're renting, you're creating the equity for the owner of the property.
Owning is a form of forced savings. Unfortunately,
a lot of us tend to have a problem with saving. Making that monthly
payment, which reduces the principle balance on the property, will grow
that equity to the point where you pay off the debt completely and have
100% financial advantage of the property.
Owning is a hedge against inflation. In
the past, real estate has kept up with or beat inflation. Owning is a
great way to maintain your financial strength in an environment where
inflation occurs.
The
bottom line is that while there are many emotional reasons that compel
people to buy real estate, you can't deny that there is also big
financial benefit in owning your own home.
If
you have any questions about today's video or about real estate in
general, give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help
you!