There are numerous reasons and advantages to owning your own home. First, your home is your castle and you and your home are protected in many ways by the law. Another most obvious reason to own your own home is to provide shelter for you and your family. A big advantage is building home equity over time in home ownership. As equity builds, you create a pool of money to access in difficult financial times.

The term home equity is simply the value of your home after all debts have been deducted. If your home appraises at $500,000 and your debt or home mortgage loan is $250,000, you have $250,000 in equity. Whether you realize it or not, this equity can get you through difficult financial times or provide you with a funding resource for other requirements. Today’s mortgage rates for home equity loans are very reasonable.

A few of the funding situations you may need your home equity for are as follows:

Emergency:

If you get through life without ever having a family or financial emergencies, you are a very lucky person. Unfortunately many people are confronted with emergences that require funding. Home equity can provide the finances for those emergencies. You can use it for unexpected medical bills, legal fees, or any other expenses that arise in an emergency. At such time you will be grateful that you purchased a home and have been building home equity.

Education:

Few families are in a position to pay out the extraordinary expenses for a college education when the children reach college age. Although student loans seem to be readily available to everyone these days they don’t cover everything. Financing a child’s college education is extremely expensive. The equity in your home will provide a ready resource to assist you with these expenses. Home equity can put an end to college cost nightmares by borrowing against the equity to pay college expenses. As with an emergency situation, home ownership will give you the ability to pay the bills.

Weddings:

Yes, weddings are expensive, especially if you have a large extended family. And who doesn’t want to go all out if you have only one daughter. If you have equity in your home, a home equity loan will come in handy to pay for these costs.

Making the decision to buy a home can be stressful and frightening. As time passes you will realize that it was the best financial decision you ever made. Renting a home or apartment living may be convenient or easy as it relives you from a lot of home ownership chores and cost. But you can’t be building equity in your home if you home is a rental property. Home ownership is not just a reservoir for building equity, it also provides you a sense of freedom that can’t be surpassed by any other single action.

Adding Value To Your Home