Are you ready for yet one more blog post about the benefits of owning a home versus renting a home? Probably not, but here it is anyway.
When you own a home you control your future. You’re paying a mortgage and that mortgage is helping you build equity in the house so that years down the road you have something. If you rent you’re paying the landlord’s mortgage. At the end of the year all you have is a pile of cancelled checks.
When you own there are tax benefits. As I’ve said before, you can deduct your mortgage interest and your real estate taxes from your income taxes. That can add up to pretty good-size savings. Your monthly payments, even with a minimal down payment, will probably be less if you buy rather than if you were to rent a similar home. And that’s before the tax benefits kick in.
When you own, you are the one who will decide if and when you want to move. You don’t have to move because the landlord decided that the landlord wants to move in. Or maybe the landlord decides it’s time to sell.
If you want to make alterations to the property you can do that if you own the home. You cannot do that if you are renting, unless you get the landlord’s permission.
You’ll give your children a better sense of stability, knowing they will stay in the same neighborhood, have the same friends and go to the same schools.
I don’t know what else I can say about the subject. I am probably beating it to death. But the bottom line is, if you’re going to stay in a home for more than 2 or 3 years, and if you have the down payment, and if you can get a mortgage, BUY NOW!.
