What about the emotional satisfaction of owning a home?
Pamlow thinks we spend too much time on this blog debating the dollars and cents side of home buying/selling/ownership. We are missing the bigger picture, she contends.
And frankly, I think she's right.
To boil it down to its core, buying and owning a home is part of the recipe generations of Americans have been following in their efforts to build a "nice life" for themselves, as pamlow notes.
Renting is fine, but it's still not comparable, especially for young families, when it comes to the much wider array of home sizes, styles and locations that are available on the for-sale market.
And guess what, the fast and furious romance with apartment living is already entering its final 15 minutes as landlords big and small scramble to jack up rents.
Here's what pamlow had to say on the deeper attractions of homeownership.
There is a whole emotional component to life that is often missing on this thread. It doesn't make financial sense to have kids, but many people have them. It doesn't make financial sense to go on vacation, but many people do so. It may not make financial sense to buy a home, but many people do because they feel it gives them greater control over their immediate environment--- i.e., garden, dog, kids, putting holes in the wall to hang paintings, enjoying a few home improvement projects, etc. It's a perfectly valid reason to buy. Even if it makes no financial sense. This is LIFE people. It's finite. Not everyone is concerned about investments, bank accounts and the bottom line. Some of us just want to enjoy each day and we're less concerned about how many dollars are left in the bank when we die. A few of us see owning a home as one component of a nice life.
So what do you think?
