Should we buy a house as an investment?

 Paying the rent month to month is, for many, synonymous with wasting money. On the contrary, using it to buy a house of your own appears as a much more promising alternative. After all, they would be purchasing a property! Do you count among them?  According to some experts, buying a home in abbotsford may not always be such a good investment.

 

Buying a house, is it really an investment?

While many consider buying a home as an investment that they could recoup when its value grows over time, professor and real estate expert Todd Sinai, assured that this line of thinking is wrong!

Against this prevalent idea, acquiring a property is a consumer decision, and not an investment to make at any time, he explained. Thus, regardless of market trends and what, potentially, the home could appreciate, when choosing to buy, people should evaluate if it meets their needs, objectives and budget.

 

What to consider when buying

In this sense, there are several scenarios to consider:

• If when deciding to buy a house you will spend more per month than what it means to rent, it would not be a good decision!

• If you buy the property, and even if its market value increases, when you sell it, you would still need a place to live, and you would end up choosing your next home, in that same economic context!

• The process of buying and selling a home is not cheap: taxes, fees, closing costs ... are all factors to subtract from the potential returns of the “investment”.

 

What to do then?

Buy a home, but don't see it as an investment. The great benefit of having it is being able to live there. Value it, then, as a place to raise your kids, enjoy the parties and have barbecues with the neighbors. Thus, the decision to own your own home could be more a matter of lifestyle and stability than of financial returns.