If you are like most first time home buyers, you have heard friends and family convince you that buying a home is the right thing to do, but is it really the right choice for you? This is a completely normal reaction to one of the biggest purchases you will make in your lifetime. The more you know about the home buying process, the more it may seem that your friends and family are right. Here are the many reasons buying a home will quickly outweigh the drain of renting.

1. Pride of ownership – This is one of the biggest reasons people decide to purchase a home. Pride of ownership means you can paint the walls whatever color you want, attach fixtures without having to spackle the holes a year later, and ultimately have a place you can call your own. To be able to call something your own is an extremely gratifying emotion that no one can take from you. Real estate moves in cycles, sometimes it goes up, sometimes it goes down, but ultimately real estate consistently appreciates. Many people view their real estate investment as a screen against inflation.
2. Taxes – Home ownership is an excellent shelter from taxes, and our tax rates favor home ownership. As long as your mortgage balance is smaller than the price of your property, the mortgage interest is fully deductible on tax returns. Real estate property taxes paid for a first home or vacation home are fully deductible for income tax purposes.
3. Building equity – Each time you make a mortgage payment, part of that goes toward the principal of your mortgage, reducing obligation. Every month, the payment towards principle slightly increases, gaining you more and more equity in your home. Instead of paying $1200 in rent to a property manager, when you purchase a home, a portion of your money is essential going back into your pocket.
4. Relatability – If you are familiar with the DMV area, you know you can pay upwards of $2200 to rent an apartment. With that same amount of money, you can purchase a home in the $350k-$500k range and pay the same monthly. Why would you continually pay a significant amount of money to someone who is collecting a paycheck by you living on their property, instead of having that money go back into your wallet via the investment that is your home. Not only do you have the pride of ownership, but you are paying yourself, rather than someone else.

Investment – You have probably heard a home is one of the best investment’s you can make. When renting, every single penny you pay towards rent is helping someone else knock down their mortgage, why not invest in yourself? On average, you are paying $1200 in rent a month. If this was applied to the principle of a mortgage, you are losing $14,400 that could yours, instead of someone that collects your rent check.