I’ve been thinking a lot about homeownership lately because I’m in the process of selling my mother and step-father’s home for them. They are not doing well physically or mentally, so we moved them into a Memory Care facility so they can get the care they so desperately need. It’s truly heartbreaking to watch them decline so rapidly. My step-father wants us to sell their home so they can afford to live in their beautiful Assisted Living place. He already feels the relief of not having to pay so many bills each month. Now they just have one.
Here in the USA, it has been said for decades that the American Dream is homeownership. Of course, that idea isn’t unique to my country. If you read my reviews or watch them on my Movie Review Mom YouTube channel, then you saw one of my recent reviews about a film called HER.
It’s about a single mother in Ireland who actually built her own house so that her children could be safe. The idea of Home as a safe place was something I learned as a young child while watching movies like The Wizard of Oz and Swiss Family Robinson
Homeownership can be complicated, however. Two of my sons recently purchased their first home and are discovering how expensive it can be to make repairs and maintain the property and all of the appliances inside the house! The Money Pit is an exaggerated example of expensive homeownership. It had been years since I had watched that movie, so my husband and I watched it again the other night. Classic mayhem.
Other lessons we learn about homeownership in the movies are:
- Leaving your first house can be emotional and difficult: The War of the Roses
- Be careful what kind of house and property you buy: Funny Farm
- Your house might actually be alive: Monster House
- Don’t live in a creepy, old hotel: The Shining (1980)
- Don’t accidentally leave your kids alone in the house: Home Alone
- Home is where your loved ones live: Yours, Mine, and Ours
- Be sure to buy a house near good neighbors: Rear Window
My husband is a real estate appraiser and we both have had our real estate license for decades. During our entire marriage and lives, we have NEVER seen mortgage rates this low! If you are ready to take the plunge to purchase your own house, now is an excellent time! According to Freddie Mac, mortgage rates are currently at 3%. Freddie Mac was chartered by Congress in 1970 to keep money flowing to mortgage lenders in support of homeownership. For a few years, my husband worked as a senior review appraiser for CoreLogic. According to their website today, U.S. homeowners with mortgages have seen their equity increase by a total of $1 trillion since the third quarter of 2019! That’s an increase of 10.8% year over year!
So, before you go househunting, do your homework by seeing what you can realistically afford. I love the calculators offered at Mortgage Calculators. A really great one to start with is a monthly mortgage payment amount to see if buying a house fits into your budget or if renting is a better option for you right now.
And finally, with the rise in popularity of companies like AirBnB, homeowners can actually rent out their homes to earn extra income! I did that for a year until the city of Las Vegas made it illegal where I live. Drats! If you haven’t seen it yet, check out my movie review of a new romantic comedy that takes place in a house that’s rented out through AirBnB called Weekenders.
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