While I was outside freeing my roof from the horrors of the heavy snow earlier this week, I got to thinking that buying a house is not a good money making investment. There are those who say that a house is a solid piece of investment for making money. I'm not so sure.
With a house comes a great deal of expenses to maintain the investment. We have to purchase equipment to maintain the house. For example, snow rakes, lawn mower, tools, lawn equipment, filters, etc. We have to put a lot of money into customizing the house for ourselves by painting rooms, getting different flooring, putting up drapes, etc. Pile on that unexpected charges like having to replace your roof (which we need to do soon, ours is not up to code), replacing failed appliances, fixing broken pipes, calling the plumber to fix the backup from said broken pipes, and the intangible investment of the time spent performing the upkeep on the house. For an investment, it is a hell of a lot of work and money required to maintain it. I believe that the money we spend in upkeep almost or completely cancels out the increase on the cost of the house.
No I am not saying I don't like having a house. I like that I get more control over where I live and I can customize it to my needs and wants. That flexibility comes with a high price though. I am sure I am making some money on the house somewhere, but there has to be better and easier investment opportunities to grow our money.
Overall, I think owning a house is mainly about having control over the place where you live. It is not normally a money making opportunity. I would compare it to a low-yield savings account. The costs of upkeep and maintenance eat into my gains for appreciation on the house thus reducing my rate of return. When we sell the house we will get some money out of the sale that we put into the house. I don't expect to see a huge profit on the sale, but I do expect some of our investment back.
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If you do the straight up math comparing a one bedroom apt to a house AND you invest the difference, then no, owning a home isn't a better investment.
However, if you start to have a family, you'll need to compare a large apartment, so it starts to go down.
I feel like it's an arguement, because most people who live in an apt WOULDN'T invest the difference of their money, so the home is a more solid "forced" investment.
Plus, it's your home! I LOVE LOVE LOVE having my own home. I LOVE LOVE LOVE not sharing walls with others. I LOVE LOVE LOVE getting to fix it all up. Plus, the kitties love the extra windows.
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