Buying your first home is a milestone moment for many people. When that day comes, it’s nice not to have to hear the people who live above you pacing back and forth anymore. Or to ask your landlord if it’s okay to paint your walls. But the benefits of owning a home go beyond the freedom and privacy it provides.
If you are ready to make your dream of owning a home a reality, here are five benefits homeownership offers.
- Build wealth. Some people say that renting is like throwing money down the drain. While that’s not exactly true—after all, you get a place to live and someone to handle the repairs when something breaks—renting doesn’t give you an opportunity to build wealth the way owning a home does. When you make your mortgage payment every month, you gain a little more equity in your home, which helps you build wealth and financial stability.
- Appreciation. While you may not always see gains in home prices like we’ve experienced in recent months, in many markets across the country home values generally appreciate over time. The longer you stay in your home, the more likely it is to appreciate, increasing the home’s value above what you paid for it.
- Stable monthly payments. Rent payments often increase year-over-year. But if you choose a fixed-rate mortgage to finance the purchase of your home, your monthly principal-and-interest payments will stay the same throughout the life of the loan.
- Building credit. Because mortgages are long-term loans, which can take 15, 20 or 30 years to pay off, if you make your payments on time, a mortgage can help you establish a positive payment history. And it helps diversify your credit mix, which is another factor used to calculate credit scores.
- First-time home buyer programs. As a first-time home buyer, you could be eligible for financial assistance that may include grants, low or no down payment loans and down payment assistance that isn’t typically available to people who are selling their current home to move into a new one.
If you have questions about buying your first house, our Licensed Mortgage Professionals can help. Give us a call today to learn more.
