Historically, owning a home has always been a good, sound investment and even though our economy is going
through some rough times and home values have fluctuated the past year or two, owning a home continues to be a smart investment. A few reasons to support home purchasing as a good investment is due to low rates, decrease in home pricing, and government backed incentive programs.
You may be thinking, “yeah, right”. We all watch the news, read the papers, and the housing market is down, defaults and foreclosures are up and banks are making it more and more difficult to get loans without “A Paper” credit.
While good credit is a must, it doesn’t have to be perfect. Most of the time, having a 620 will open several doors for you. In addition to that, if you have a job and a regular paycheck, you’ll find that there are plenty of options for you to consider with a new mortgage and rates, while not at the same low point from maybe a year ago, are still great!
If you consider that on average, home values go up 5-8% every year, the return investment of a home can be much higher than buying stock. Let’s say you purchase a $100,000 home and put 10% or $10,000 down. At a 5% annual growth rate, that $100,000 home would be valued at $105,000 its first year. Earning 50% of your initial down payment back in the first year is a great return! If you’ve ever played with money in the stock market, you know that’s not only a rare find but one you definitely want to jump on. It’s difficult finding investments with that sort of return.
Here’s another way to look at it over a longer time span: If you had put $10,000 into the stock market in 1996, the average annual S&P return would make that investment worth a little over $21,000. That’s an increase of only a little more than $11,000. The median home price in 1996 was $140,000. Today, that home would have gained almost $100,000 in value.
Now is definitely a good time to take advantage of the market and reap all the benefits of home ownership. This market is providing a unique opportunity for people to get the biggest bang for their buck and you don’t want this ship to pass you by! Please feel free to contact me directly for more information or to get pre-qualified for your new home purchase. Tiffany (@) lonestarfinancing.com
