According to CoreLogic, homeowners across the country are gaining significant equity. Over the past year, the average homeowner gained $9,800 in equity, growing their overall net worth.
If you’re ready to sell your house and begin looking for your dream home, let’s connect to plan how your equity can make that possible.
We’re in a changing real estate market, and life, in general, is changing too — from how we grocery shop and meal prep to the ways we can interact with our friends and neighbors. Even practices for engaging with agents, lenders, and all of the players involved in a real estate transaction are changing to a virtual format. What isn’t changing, however, is one key thing that can drive the local economy: buying a home.
If you’re in a position to buy a home today, know that you’re a major economic force in your neighborhood. And while we all wait patiently for the current pandemic to pass, there are a lot of things you can do in the meantime to keep your home search on track.
Every year the National Association of Realtors (NAR) shares a report that notes the full economic impact of home sales. This report summarizes:Continue Reading
Owning a home has great financial benefits.
In a recent research paper titled “Homeownership and the American Dream,” Laurie S. Goodman and Christopher Mayer of the Urban Land Institute explained:
“Homeownership appears to help borrowers accumulate housing and non-housing wealth in a variety of ways, with tax advantages, greater financial flexibility due to secured borrowing, built-in ‘default’ savings with mortgage amortization and nominally fixed payments, and the potential to lower home maintenance costs through sweat equity.”
Let’s break down five major financial benefits of homeownership:
Homeownership allows households to amplify any appreciation on the value of their homes by a leverage factor. A 20% down payment results in a leverage factor of five, meaning every percentage point rise in the value of your home is a 5% return on your equity. If you put down 10%, your leverage factor is 10.
Example: Let’s assume you purchased a $300,000 home and put down $60,000 (20%). If the house appreciates by $30,000, that is not only a 10% increase in value but a 50% increase in equity.Continue Reading
It’s safe to assume that pretty much everyone wants to build wealth — and continue to build wealth throughout their life. But how, exactly, do you do that? According to the data, you build wealth by buying real estate — and buying it early.
According to a report from the Urban Institute, homeowners who purchase property early build more wealth by their sixties than homeowners who wait until later in life to buy a home. The homeowners who get the most bang for their buck? Those who purchase their home between the ages of 25 and 34.
By age 60 or 61, these homeowners have a median home equity of close to $150,000, which is $72,000 more than homeowners who purchase property between the ages of 35 and 44 and a whopping $100,000 more than homeowners who wait to buy real estate until after the age of 45.
In summary, the earlier in life you buy a home, the more wealth you’ll have accumulated by the time you’re ready to retire. And no matter how old you are today, it’s never too late to start building wealth. So if you’ve been thinking about purchasing a home, there’s no better time than right now.
