14 Sep The House Becomes A Home Again

The way we view home ownership in America has no doubt changed over the last two years. I don’t think anyone will argue that. What experts are debating now is whether or not the housing market will ever look the same. That is, will home ownership ever be the American dream again? I have talked about this before but as more articles are emerging in relation to the topic, I think it’s a good idea to keep the discussion going. I recommend you read this article from Builderonline.com. It has a lot of interesting points and spurred the idea for this blog.

A big problem with the housing market, and a major contributor to its collapse, is that most buyers enter a new home with the idea that it’s an easy investment. Up until now a new home was looked at as a nest egg for later. To be true, this would mean that every house purchased would appreciate in value which was a common opinion before 2007. So when a market crash comes along there are a lot of people upside down on a home that they once thought would be their key to retirement.

Experts believe that this will lead to two things. The rise of rental properties will no doubt be a direct result from the recession and housing market crash. Whether its plain fear of owning a home and taking on a mortgage or it’s the realization that owning isn’t always the right thing to do, the attitude has changed. This is hard for people to swallow because it is contradictory to what has been preached from our society including the government. Regardless of the reason, rental properties are about to take off.

Outside of rental properties, the way Americans view home ownership will change. Actually, it has to or we will never get out of this mess. The house will no doubt become a home again. It won’t get the penny stock treatment like it has in the past decade. Sure a home is still an investment but it should be more than that. Not for any other reason than it makes sense financially.