It's called "the American Dream" - owning your own home.
But practically speaking, what are the advantages of owning a home?
What's interesting to note is - not everyone's idea of a home is the same. one man's 800 square foot condo wouldn't work at all for a family of four. but there are some things that homeowners have in common.
"Interest write-off that you can use for your taxes, property taxes can also be written off and it's always nice to be able to say that you own your own home," says Darron Carson, Central Pacific Bank.
Those write-offs could always figure into your overall tax situation. Just what kind of advantage could home ownership mean when it comes to tax time?
"You need to talk to your CPA but we typically factor in about 30 percent of what the payment is to be able to be written off. so, if your payment is $1000 a month, you'd be able to factor in about $300 a month would be a write-off for you," says Carson.
Another alternative is purchasing a property as an investment, not as your primary residence.
Yeah, there's also the tax benefits of being able to write off maintenance fees, utilities, different things, expenses that you can use on an investment property. It's a little bit different than a home that you own," says Carson.
When you purchase a home, you build up equity - a kind of real estate savings account.
"You can borrow against it. A lot of people are doing that nowadays. A lot of grandparents that want to help out their children because their grandkids are trying to go to college now or going to school," says Carson.
Carson says along with the pride of home ownership comes the opportunity for cash flow.
That's very common right now in these hard economic times. People being able to use that property as a tool to be able to borrow against it to help out family members or themselves," says Carson.
