When home prices are still high and credit is difficult to get, are there any benefits to owning my own home?

Some of the benefits of homeownership are difficult to evaluate and some benefits are easier to quantify.  Benefits such as an established place for shelter and a source of pride in ownership can be difficult to place a value on.  The tax benefits of owning home are fairly straightforward to calculate.  The mortgage calculator can be employed to calculate the tax benefits of owning a home; the data to enter into the tax savings mortgage calculator is straightforward and will give an estimate of the tax savings.  The tax benefits of owning a home can be rather lengthy and involved.  Mortgage interest is generally tax deductible on personal tax returns as are the points paid to secure a mortgage to buy a home, the real estate property taxes are deductible and there is a sizeable tax exclusion from the capital gains tax on the sale of a primary residence.  Other benefits include a forced savings plan since a fully amortizing mortgage builds equity as the monthly payments reduce the principal balance of the loan.  Appreciation may occur and increase the value as well as sweat equity may also bring up the value.  And don’t forget to simply compare monthly rent payments with a mortgage payment.  Use the mortgage payment calculator to compare payments available in today’s market.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 at 10:28 pm and is filed under Mortgage FAQs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.