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Many U.S. metros are plagued by high rates of foreclosure and I'm wondering if owning a home is even a good investment. I look forward to seeing your input.
Only if you are buying it to fix up or rent out. I think you'd make more money renting one, not being tied down to one, and owning 2-3 you didn't live in and being able to upgrade/adjust rental prices per the market.
Buy the house to live in it. The reason so many are foreclosed or walked away from is because people stopped treating houses as a place to live and raise a family and started treating them as a investment or ATM. Those same people are underwater or list their residence are now renting. Whose to blame? Partially the banks for lending and partially the homeowners for stupid borrowing and thinking the house value will pay for it
Being a homeowner IMO is the best thing ever. Just don't be stupid
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Depends on where, and the timing. Ours is worth about $300,000 more than we paid for it despite the drop in 2008, and has gone up 20% just since the first of 2013. That kind of return is hard to beat. On the other hand if the economy tanked worse than before we could end up with a lot less. It's a gamble now,
not a sure thing like in the past decades.
We enjoy living in it, and the $20,000 tax deduction for mortgage interest and taxes that we get in April is makes it a decent investment since you don't get any tax break for renting.
The stock market is the best way to build long term wealth. However, average Joes don't participate in it, for whatever reason, so that leaves real estate. You need a place to live, anyway. There are some tiny nooks and crannies, where it is better to rent. Taiwan, where a home costs 50 X, annual rent, would be one. If it'n not an investment, then you must be pretty well off. I would say if you are only spending 5% of your net worth on a home, then it is just your home and it doesn't matter much about fluctuations in value. But, for most people, they are spending perhaps 1000% of their net worth on a home, if they even have a positive net worth, at all. Heck, there is a whole generation of people out there, who are spending more than their net worth on an I-phone. The people that say it's not an investment are the leftist sheep, who were slaughtered in the bust. Now they are simply keeping down with the Joneses. How many times have you heard "everyone is underwater in their homes"? Too many for me. That's why I crunch the numbers and have a back-up plan. I also have good appliances, no bugs, and no cat **** carpet.
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