If you are planning to buy a home, you probably have good reason in mind, ranging from the purely personal to the very practical.

A PLACE OF YOUR OWN

Your home is your castle, as the old saying goes. A home is a place you can call your own. Perhaps you are ready to settle down in your community and want the feeling of performance and involvement that comes with owning your own home. Perhaps you need more space in which to raise a family. Or, maybe you want more freedom than you have in a rental unit to adopt your living space to suit your individual taste and needs.

FINANCIAL INCENTIVES

For many people, the motivation for home ownership is primarily financial. Owning your home is a first-rate investment for a number of reasons:

Scheduled Savings

When you buy a house, your monthly mortgage payments serve as a type of scheduled savings plan. Over time, you gradually accumulate what lender call "equity", an ownership interest in the property that you can often borrow against or convert into cash by selling the house. In contrast, renters must continue paying rent to a landlord for as long as they rent, without the opportunity to build equity.

Stable Housing Cost

Another advantage of home ownership is that while rents typically increase year after year, the principal and interest portion of most mortgage payments remains unchanged throughout the entire repayment period (typically 30 years). In fact, because of the effect of inflation, over the years you pay the same amount but with ever "cheaper" dollars.

Increased Value

Houses typically increase in value, or "appreciate", over time. It's not unusual to find a house that sold for $50,000 fifteen years ago to be valued at much more than that amount today. This increased value is as good as money in the bank to the homeowner.

Tax Benefits

Homeowners also get significant tax breaks that are not available to renters. Most importantly, interest paid on a home mortgage is usually deductible. This factor alone can save you a substantial amount each year in federal income taxes.