With vacancies at a near all time low, property managers are also becoming stingy with incentives (free month, free move, etc) for tenants. The cost of housing has the biggest impact on household budgets. While renting has its appeal to some, there are a few drawbacks. Most importantly when you are renting, your rent will continually increase year over year and in many parts of the country the rental rates are increasing faster than income rates. The disparate impact on household budgets makes it more difficult if not impossible to save towards owning your own home. The other major road block is home prices are increasing. Even at a modest 3% price increase every year your cash requirement and monthly payment will continue to increase year over year. Therefore renters are getting penalized on both sides of the equation as time goes on; higher rent costs and higher barriers of entry to home ownership. There are tremendous benefits to home ownership. One of the most beneficial is gaining control of your cost of housing. As a homeowner, you are no longer subject to the neck breaking cost increases of housing. While you may have nominal increases in property taxes an homeowners insurance in future years; those increase are pale in comparison to the increases in rents and property values.
If you are considering owning a home or need an action plan to purchase your own home, contact us. We can assist in developing a personalized action plan, locating potential properties to own, securing financing, and navigating you through the process of becoming a home owner.
Home loan programs are enabling long time renters to become home owners. With rent on the rise, now is the time to consider purchasing a home.