Homeownership – Is it “TIME” to give it up?

Time magazine's recent article, "Rethinking Homeownership - why owning a home may no longer make economic sense" came at a special time in my daughter's life. Having married 2 weeks ago, she and her husband were evaluating purchasing a home. Then, Time published the article...

I commend the new couple on their financial wisdom. They have a plan! Buy something very inexpensive, pay off the mortgage in a few years, and then look to do it again with a bit more expensive home. This keeps their interest, taxes and other expenses in line with their capability to pay off the home, and they will truly build equity in their purchase.

This approach is similar to the very old way of paying cash or obtaining a short-term mortgage. I remember my parents buying a home with a 10-year mortgage. 20 years, the maximum then, was just too long. Buying to the maximum the bank will finance and owing 30 years of their lives to the bank is a young couple's path to misery in this financial era. We all have choices, and need to do what makes sense for us, not what others with smiling faces and our money, would like us to do.

My favorite billboard reads "Act your wage."