We’ve all heard that it’s better to own than to rent, right? But you might ask yourself, why should I own a property and why is it better? Here are some reasons why many people decide it’s better to rent than to buy. First it costs more money upfront (closing costs, inspections, etc.) to buy, you have to maintain your property rather than having the leisure of letting your building or property owner maintain it, and last of all your mortgage payment is usually higher than what your monthly rent would be.

So why on earth would anyone want to pay more money and have the burden of repairing anything that goes wrong with their property? Below are some of the financial incentives as to why owning a house IS better than renting:

Appreciation

As almost everyone has witnessed, real estate appreciates and in the past five years it has appreciated at a staggering pace. While no one should expect to see the kind of double digit percentage increases in their property value on a yearly basis that occurred during the housing boom, you should expect to see a healthy return on your property, especially if you hold on to it for five years or more. The real estate market does move in cycles, sometimes up and sometimes down but it has constantly appreciated over time and that’s the key.

Tax Deductible

Tax time is never fun, writing Uncle Sam a large check each year is always a time that can put you in a bad mood and let’s not forget all the paperwork and number crunching associated with it. However, there are two things that we all both like about tax time – first is listing your deductions when filing your 1040 form and second is receiving that refund check from the government. The benefit of owning a property is that all of your mortgage interest is tax deductible and interest is the largest component of your mortgage payment. Remember how I mentioned above that your mortgage payment may be higher than rent? But what if the difference between rent and your mortgage payment is all tax deductible – wouldn’t that make paying that difference a little easier each month?

It’s All Yours

This may sound silly, but a lot of people don’t realize it but when you buy a house it’s all yours and doesn’t belong to anyone else (OK, the bank truly owns it, but pay your mortgage and you’ll be fine). As opposed to an apartment, no one can tell you that you can no longer live there in year, or raise your rent/mortgage payment. Further, every time you make a mortgage payment you’re making yourself that much richer because you own a larger amount of that property. Best of all, if you rent for 20 years and then move what do you get back from your property? Nothing. If you own and you pay your mortgage for 20 years, when you sell you will receive whatever amount of money you paid off on the loan plus whatever appreciation the property has inherited. It’s like making money just for paying your bills.

While these are only some of the incentives associated with owning a property there are many, many more. However, probably one of the biggest reasons to own your own property is that you can do whatever you want (within the law of course) and no one can tell you not to, if you want to have a large dog or 5 cats – you can. If you want to paint your walls orange, green and purple – you can. If you want to attach permanent fixtures to the walls – go for it, it is after all your house!