A Home of Your Own is Worth So Much More

I truly believe in home ownership.

As a Realtor...OF COURSE I said that...but the belief lives within the rest of me, the creative, empathic and sensitive human. A home is so much more than its “equity” (although that can definitely be a nice by-product of the home ownership experience LOL). A home is a place to truly call ours. An extension of ourselves. A safe place where we can rest, de-stress from the outside world and just be ourselves. It’s a place where we can completely fall apart or laugh so hard that we snort. It’s the place that reflects our travels, not only worldly destinations, but our emotional and spiritual journeys as well. It shows us where and who we are. It hides our secrets and treasures. It’s a place where we are free to express our personalities and quirks.

Yes, there will be challenges and costs, anything that’s worth anything is going to require work, but I look at it like this, as rents rise, your mortgage does not. Why not then find a good strategy to budget and be open to learning new things (my husband and I have had some TRIUMPHANT watershed moments DIYing around our home)?

For me, owning a home means freedom. I can do pretty much whatever I want to do to MY home, whether it’s painting a mural on the retaining wall outside, painting my front door pink (currently painting the inside with Danish folk art/fantasyland at Disneyland/my style scene) or doing the kitchen in some wild maximalist style, it’s my choice and my space. I love knowing I have the option to take my equity and buy something bigger or use it to make improvements and make it even more “me”. Putting down thick, healthy roots in my community is priceless. Not to mention the security knowing that I am staying put until I make the decision to leave (aka my landlord isn’t going to decide to sell and leave me scrambling to find another place to live and having to come up with even more money because moving is expensive, and the replacement home always seems to be more expensive than the one you’re leaving).

There has been so much emphasis on why NOT to buy a home these days, but even with the slew of negativity going on in the US with inflation, rates, affordability, economy, politics, lawsuits, etc. and everything going on in the world, I am and will continue to advocate for home ownership. You have to live somewhere and a home of your own is worth so much more than how much you can sell it for.

I’ve shared my feelings and now I’m curious to know, what does home ownership mean to you?