Mel Abraham challenges the idea that buying a home always builds wealth. He walks through the real costs of homeownership versus renting to help you figure out which actually makes sense for your situation.
People will say renting is just throwing away money. Only home builders build wealth. Here's the truth. Both renting and owning can be smart. It just depends on your situation. I remember having a conversation with someone from my publisher. He said, it is the American Dream. And I said, is it your dream? We're here to live our dream. We're here to live our life based on our vision and not necessarily some dream that's been created as the American Dream. The challenge is, I don't think that people look at the total cost of ownership. It's not just buying the home. It's the property taxes, it's the insurance, it's the repairs, it's the HOA fees, it's the opportunity cost that you lose by putting money down on a home that you might be able to invest. If you're going to do this, run the numbers, don't let fomo, don't let you know the American dream drive your biggest purchase of your life. If you crave that flexibility or you think you might need to move, renting might be the wealthier in play.
