Recently, I read an article suggesting that ‘not every home purchase is an investment’, which gave me pause. I am a huge advocate for home ownership. Not only because I made the brash decision recently to purchase and repair a home, but also because I know what home ownership does for families and individuals, and I wouldn’t want somone in the planning stages to be discouraged.
Not everyone will purchase a home, I certainly don’t beleive everyone should. Unless you’re considering purchasing a home, stop reading this now. Or, do what you want, I don’t care.
Reasons I think you should buy, if you wanna:
1. Purchasing a home means building equity 
When done strategically, purchasing a home is an opportunity to build wealth. While market trends ebb and flow, a home is something that increases in value over time, You also have control over the return on your investment. Very small repairs can mean thousands of dollars in increased value, and for this reason…
2….Homeowners have a higher net worth than renters.
As long as you own your home, you likely have a higher net worth than a renter because your home is an asset you can always levy in this monopoly game we’re all playing.
3. Every family needs to build capital
I’ve seen first hand the economic disparities between families who own a home and families who don’t. Redlining, a practice that still exists today to institutionally sergregate black and white families, has historically barred black families from ‘Essential Capitol’, according to the Washington Post. Past redlining affects families today, and families who are denied home ownership are also denied an opportunity to accumulate wealth.
4. Home Ownership Improves Communities 
When you purchase a home, you increase the market value of the neighborhood, too. Supressing homeownership through redlining practices decades ago resulted in the decline of neighborhoods and communities today, according to the Houson Chronicle:
A redlined community is starved of investment, depressing homeownership, jobs, the creation of new businesses and other activities that help neighborhoods prosper, said Susan Rogers, an associate professor of architecture at the University of Houston who specializes in community design and development. Redlining persists, although the signs are more subtle than lines drawn on a map.
Recognizing that homeownership might actually fill a gap in underserved communities, an initiative increase homeownership, thereby increasing net worth. For homeowners in these neighrborhoods, each individual house purchase helps expound on the wealth wthin the community, hopefully reversing the affects of redlining.
5. Homeownership is fun
And rewarding, and exhausting, etc. It’s a long, exhausting process that goes from analyzing your own financial situation, then communicating with banks, realtors, and listing agents, and cutting through a LOT of beaurocratic red tape, but the day you stick your key into the lock of your OWN home, you’ll be thankful you did it. Remember that when a pipe bursts or the A/C conks out that you are standing on a piece of land that is yours! Want to hang a picture with a hammer and nail? Do it! Wanna paint a wall purpe? Do it! Wanna sell it and start all over? You can do that too, and maybe make a buck!
A lot of future first time homeowners will say ‘Yeah, duh, but I need to get my money right first’, and I say ‘Do your thing’. In the meantime tick off smaller goals like:
- Check your credit score
- Pay off your smallest debts first, and move your way up
- Decrease your monthly spending each month by a target amount
- Determine the amount of house you can afford
- Download a real estate app. Begin watching the market.
- Go to an open house!
- Track your monthly spending
- Watch these:
OnCloudMine 