Your home: An investment in which you can live

Extremely favorable mortgage rates have helped keep the housing industry grow during the past few years. The unusually heavy pace of home sales nationally and locally reflects a strong desire to buy by entry-level and repeat buyers.

Low interest rates have made homes easy to buy for entry-level buyers and repeat buyers. Mortgage rates are slowly creeping up and home prices are still rising a bit in the Spokane area. Home-buyer studies show that Americans change homes about every seven years.

Classes on home-buying for prospective buyers are being offered by a number of local nonprofit groups that help Spokane buyers take some of the anxiety out of the process. Classes are generally free. They have done much to improve home-buyers’ knowledge of how to buy and sell in this amazing market.

Not long ago, home-buyers typically invested 10 to 20 percent of the purchase price of their home as a down payment. Today it is easier to find a program that fits nearly every situation. Financing today makes it possible for nearly everyone to buy a home if they choose to do so. Down payments are currently much less for first-time buyers and veterans.

Housing has proven to be a positive investment for several reasons. Historically, home-value increases have averaged better than 5 percent each year in the past 40 years.

Home-buyers receive tax benefits for their investment in the form of deductions allowed for mortgage interest — one of the write-offs available in today’s world.

And here’s where it really counts. A home provides shelter. You actually live in your investment. What else can you buy where that happens? You buy a home for little down, your investment yields more than 5 percent and you live in and control the situation.

The increase in value over the years is better than what most savings — and, wonder of it all, you get to live in your investment.