What’s not to love about home? And not just the walls and a roof that stand tall to give you and your family shelter but also the feeling of home – the warmth, the comfort, the refuge from any chaos happening in the outside world. A home is a place you haven’t just bought or built, it’s a space you’ve created!
A home is entirely yours.
When you rent, you might be able to paint the walls a deep magenta hue … and you might not. A rental property is inherently not yours, so you’re dictated by the rules and regulations of your landlord and lease. If you own the home, however, you can absolutely turn that house into your own personal haven of bright purple accent walls. Why not? It is, after all, yours to keep.
A home is a wealth-builder for the future.
Homeownership is one of the best and most reliable wealth-builders in existence because it’s an asset that steadily appreciates over time and it’s subject to volatility like a stock market investment or cryptocurrency might be. In fact, this year, the National Association of REALTORSⓇ reported homeowners who purchased a single-family existing home at the median sales price of $363,100 gained an average of $225,000 in home equity over the last 10 years.
A home provides a strong credit history.
OK, credit strength is admittedly not the most romantic reason on this list but it’s important to recognize as a benefit of homeownership. As long as you make your monthly mortgage payments, expect to build a solid credit history through homeownership. You can use this credit for other large investments like buying a car or purchasing an investment property.
A home is your self-identity.
Speaking with The Atlantic, Susan Clayton, an environmental psychologist at the College of Wooster, said that for most people, a home is part of their self-identity, and that’s why homeowners are so eager to decorate their houses and maintain their property with care. It’s also why if you ever drive by your childhood home or a previous property you lived in, your mind immediately returns back to how you felt when you lived there. Home, as this psychologist points out, isn’t just where we live, it’s part of who we are. And that’s definitely something to love.
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