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Financial Advantages to Buying a Home
1. Income Tax Savings:
Because of income tax deductions, the government is subsidizing your purchase of a home. All of the interest and property taxes you pay in a given year can be deducted from your gross income to reduce your taxable income.
For example, assume your initial loan balance is $150,000 with an interest rate of eight percent. During the first year you would pay $9969.27 in interest. If your first payment is January 1st, your taxable income would be almost $10,000 less - due to the IRS mortgage interest deduction rule.
Property taxes are deductible too. Whatever property taxes you pay in a given year may also be deducted from your gross income, lowering your tax obligation.
2. Stable Monthly Housing Costs:
When you rent a place to live, you can certainly expect your rent to increase each year - or even more often. If you get a fixed rate mortgage when you buy a home, you have the same monthly payment amount for thirty years. Even if you get an adjustable rate mortgage, your payment will stay within a certain range for the entire life of the mortgage - and interest rates aren't as volatile now as they were in the late seventies and early eighties.
3. Forced Savings:
A house is an automatic savings account. You accumulate savings in two ways. Every month, a portion of your payment goes toward the principal. Admittedly, in the early years of the mortgage, this is not much. Over time, however, it accelerates.
Second, your home appreciates. Average appreciation on a home is approximately five percent, though it will vary from year to year, and in some years may even depreciate. Over time, history has shown that owning a home is one of the very best financial investments.
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