Is it worth it to own a home?

Hi EnLifers! So, this week, I finally filed my homestead exemption. I’m not sure how many of you have heard of this, but please look it up if you haven’t heard of it and see if you are eligible. Basically, it is a discount on your property taxes which could ultimately lower your tax bill and/or mortgage payment if you have elected to carry an escrow account. The clerk said it’d take 40% off our fair market value and then she went through some calculations that I didn’t quite follow and I won’t bog you down with. However, I am eager and excited to see what discount awaits me! Now granted, I’m kicking myself about this because I’ve been in the house for 2+ years at this point and missed out on the discount, but I can’t dwell in the past. All I can do is learn from it and share with others so they don’t make the same mistake, which is what I’m doing now! Anyhow, all of the property taxes stuff got me thinking about the true cost of owning a home and if it’s really worth it. Now before you look at the screen all crazy, bear with me. First off, when I say worth “it”, what is “it” exactly? For me, it’s the investment itself-if it’s a good investment say over the stock market. I listen to quite a few finance podcasts and read my last Money magazine yesterday (I have decided not to renew any more magazine subscriptions-more about that later). There are many debates on real estate investing and stock market investing. The real estate folks talk about how much they’ve made in real estate and the stock market advocates say that real estate long term return on investments is usually lower than stock market performance.  For me, the stock market argument makes sense to me on the surface when you’re looking at pure returns, but I always wonder what goes into the “real estate” returns. I mean understand it to mean home fair market value increases over time. For example, home prices rose 6.5% from 3^rd quarter of 2016 to 3^rd quarter of 2017, Quarter 3 according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). However, that got me thinking. There’s SO much that goes into value for me. As a homeowner for the 3^rd time now, I think about all the money we spend that kind of gets lost and/or not counted in home ownership, hence the property taxes. However, there are other things too like mortgage insurance that some borrowers have if they put down less than 20%, and then just the pure mortgage interest you pay, homeowners insurance, Homeowners Association fees, appliances and their maintenance, the house itself and its maintenance, yard maintenance, and if you’re like me-all the decorating including furniture!! That’s A LOT. Now some may say, some of these things you’d have no matter what. Well if you’re renting, you definitely don’t have property taxes, mortgage insurance, or mortgage interest and renters insurance is pretty cheap comparatively. So I don’t know. I haven’t sat and done the math. However, there’s another angle that I think of when talking of real estate investing and that is the folks that either flip properties and/or rent their properties out or even just had to move and sold their house for way over what they paid. I fall into that latter category, so I’m all about real estate in the right market. So, in that sense I wonder what the return on that is?  Again, I haven’t done the math, but I’m curious about it. What I know for sure is that for me, there is something that feels good about owning-maybe the idea that one day, I will fully own it and not have to worry about arguably our biggest expense ever again and that hard earned $ can go toward my future retirement savings. I won’t ever own if I’m renting. So for me, in that sense, it is worth “it”. I believe on the investing front, it’s just always important to diversify. I personally plan to someday have a mix of investments in the stock market (I do that now through my retirement savings) and real estate via renting or flipping.  In the meantime, I’ll just think of my house as a modest investment and someplace I like to come home to with the hope that I’ll actually own it one day and that it’ll be worth at least what I bought it for by the time I’m ready to sell. What about you? Do you think buying a home is worth it? Let me know your thoughts!