Is Owning A Home Still The American Dream?

Everyone has heard the old expression “The American dream-is to own a home”. That expression has been well known for many years and resonates strong with the baby boomers generation and before.

Priorities seem to have changed. The Millenials and the Generation Z certainly have ideas of their own. Today it is still a dream to own a home, but it is not necessarily at the very top of priorities.

Most important to people is lifestyle; their business life and their social life. People seem to either be working these days or if they’re not working they are doing something for themselves or with their kids. When they are entertaining, they’re not entertaining at home like grandma used to do.

Grandma used to have large dinner parties; thus the formal dining room. People don’t entertain much these days. They don’t have big dinner parties in their home. Who wants to clean up that mess? Who wants to go shopping and deal with all the preparation?

Sure it’s great to have a wonderful kitchen, everybody loves that and many of us really enjoy cooking. But do people these days really have large parties? The living room is another very interesting room.

Who uses the living room these days? It seems with new construction that builders are not even thinking about a living room anymore. A living room is just a wasted spot where people congregate before they leave the house. Many people use the living room as just an oversize entry hall. It’s really a shame to waste all that space on a room.

What do people do in their homes these days? Our Cheviot Hills Real Estate Agents say people either work in their home, sleep in their home or eat in their home and many people don’t even eat sitting down. Have you noticed how many people are on the run while they’re eating? They eat standing at the kitchen counter or leaning over the sink.

My parents say that’s disgusting, but isn’t it true? People don’t really sit down for dinner anymore. There is a tradition about getting back to sitting down for dinner. People with young children are trying to get back to that. But the way it is these days- everybody is on the run.

People don’t stay home that much. It’s really not like it used to be. The old traditional sit down dinner at 6 o’clock in the evening just doesn’t seem to happen anymore.

That all said, our Cheviot Hills Real Estate Agents say it’s still great to own a home. There is nothing like owning a home because when you own your own home you can make your own decisions. You don’t have a landlord telling you when you can move in and when you can move out, what color you can paint and how you can landscape your backyard.

You really have a lot of freedom, a lot of control and a feeling of long term security. There is nothing better than owning your own place. Our Cheviot Hills Realtors say you can add on, lease it out, have large parties and make custom improvements to your own taste. Alternatively think of the freedom that people have as a renter.

As a renter you can give notice to move, you don’t need to worry about maintenance and expensive repairs. If you find out that you’re in a pinch, our Cheviot Hills Real Estate Agents say you can just decide to move and rent something smaller. If you decide you want to leave the area, you just give notice to your landlord and move to another location.

If you decide to take a job somewhere else, you don’t have to worry about putting your home on the market, paying a broker’s fee and the worry of whether or not your home is worth more, less or the same them it was when you purchased it. You never really tied up your down payment. With the money you would have used as down payment you might be doing other things.

Of course on the other hand, our Cheviot Hills Realtors say real estate is a great investment. There is nothing over history that has proven to be a more solid investment, but that is not important to everyone, especially for people who live in the moment and like the feeling of freedom.

In conclusion, our Cheviot Hills Realtors say owning real estate has never been a smarter move. To own a piece of property is a dream! But does it have to be your own home, the home you live in?

Maybe you decide to go in to a joint venture, maybe you decide to buy an apartment building, maybe you decide to just go and invest with a number of other people in a commercial complex or a triple net, corporate guaranteed investment.

There are many different ways to invest your money with real estate. Our Cheviot Hills Realtors are not suggesting for one minute that you don’t buy a home, in fact selling homes is what we do for a living. We think buying a home is the greatest thing in the world, but we’re from that era when people believed that owning a home is the American dream.

We think people who have owned homes in the past realize that it is the greatest move they have ever made. But it does strap you down and it is a commitment. It might keep you from entertaining as much, traveling as much and it may tie up the only money that you might have.

Most people who own a home say that they are “house poor”. Young people enjoy being Liquid and able to move with little planning or risk. Our Cheviot Hills Real Estate Agents say that the average person who buys a home puts all their money into the down payment and into remodeling the home.

Many of those people have really struggled and have given up many things including vacations and dinners out. Many people who have had children have really had to sacrifice and just do nothing but keep up that mortgage payment, pay their property taxes and deal with, expenses that come up.

There is always a time later in life when you can own a home, but when you’re young these days, people feel “I’m not ready to strap myself down and give up my play money and my freedom.

Young people these days really want to “play” and they enjoy living in the moment. We do my best to tell people to think of their future and plan ahead. As it stands- we still believe, owning a home is the “American Dream”.

For comments, questions, or information, call Ron Wynn at (310) 963-9944 or email: Ron@RonWynn.com