Rent or Buy?
by Candace Bahr, CEA, CDFA and Ginita Wall, CPA, CFPreg;
www.WIFE.org
www.MoneyClubs.com
A tremendous sense of pride comes with owning your own place, and owning a home has financial advantages as well. You can deduct the mortgage interest and property taxes on your income tax return, your house may appreciate in value, and when you sell your home you#146;ll likely realize that gain tax-free. Those are pretty great perks for investing in property.
But buying a house at the wrong time or spending more than you can afford are mistakes that can seriously derail your financial plan. Fail to pay your mortgage and you could lose the roof over your head. During a housing slump, renting is often your best bet, since property owners who are waiting for prices to rise will rent out their property, flooding the market with rentals and causing rents to drop.
Your decision to rent or own should be based on your own personal situation and finances.
For a worksheet that will help you get a better sense of the financial and tax consequences of renting or buying, click here.
http://www.wife.org/money-invest-rent-or-buy-home.htm
.
Cofounders of the nonprofit Women#146;s Institute for Financial Education (
www.WIFE.org
) and the new MoneyClub for women (
www.MoneyClubs.com
), Candace Bahr, CEA, CDFA and Ginita Wall, CPA, CFPreg; are trusted financial guides for millions of women. As owner of her own investment management firm, Candace was recently recognized as one of the top ten brokers in the country for 2003 by Registered Rep magazine. Ginita has been named to Worth magazine#146;s Top Financial Advisors for seven years. Both authors are nationally-recognized experts on women and money and regularly appear on CNN and CNBC and in national financial and women#146;s publications. This article is excerpted from their new book
It#146;s More Than Money#151;It#146;s Your Life! The New Money Club for Women
(John Wiley, 2004). Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com.
