The 3 worst reasons to buy a house
Buying a home . . . that's what everyone says you should do, right? But it’s an increasingly expensive and risky proposition. Make sure you buy for the right reasons.

By Liz Pulliam Weston

The decision on whether to rent or buy has rarely been tougher.

On the one hand, spiraling real estate prices make people afraid they'll be priced out of the market if they don't buy soon. On the other hand, renting is a relative bargain in many high-cost areas, and a growing chorus of economists warns us about the possibility of housing bubbles in many markets.

If you’re facing this nerve-racking decision, you need facts, not myths.

It's a fact that homeownership is a great way for most people to build wealth over time. But that doesn’t mean everyone should be a homeowner. It’s a bigger commitment and more expensive than most first-time buyers ever realize. You should have a clear idea of what you’re getting into before you commit to 30 years of payments -- and you shouldn’t let any of the following popular legends guide your decision.

‘Better than the stock market’
Nationally, home prices are up more than 50% in the past five years, and in 30 cities -- including San Diego, Los Angeles, Miami and Washington, D.C. -- prices have doubled. In the same period, the value of an investment in the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index has shrunk about 2%.
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Remember, though: past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Ask homeowners in Boston, Dallas, Houston, Anchorage and Southern California -- all of which suffered major real estate recessions in the past 20 years.

After dropping more than 20% in the 1990s, Los Angeles home prices took almost 10 years to regain their peak, says real estate expert John Karevoll, an analyst with DataQuick Information Systems. Anyone who lived here during that time knows people who were “upside down” -- owing a bigger mortgage than the home could be sold for. Thousands of people simply walked away from houses they couldn’t sell, trashing their credit ratings in the process.


No one can predict when, or even if, prices in a given market will decline. But many economists and researchers are warning that some markets are overdue for a correction.

One study released this summer concluded that 53 cities, representing 31% of the total housing market, were "extremely overvalued" and face a substantial risk of price declines. The study, conducted by the economics department of financial services firm National City Corp., compared price growth to underlying fundamentals, including incomes, housing density and mortgage rates and found that these cities were overvalued by 30% or more.

That doesn't mean prices in those cities will necessarily collapse, but even the most ardent real estate cheerleader acknowledges that the current pace of appreciation can't continue indefinitely.

In the past 40 years, the average appreciation for homes has exceeded the inflation rate by only a percentage point or so. Compare that to stocks, which have bested inflation by 7 percentage points in the same period.

‘I’m tired of throwing away money on rent’
Normally, renting is cheaper than owning. But in some cities, soaring real estate prices have made renting so much cheaper that it's getting really tough to make the case for becoming a homeowner.

As my colleague M.P. Dunleavey found in "Why buy in an overpriced housing market?," many Manhattanites would have to pay two or even three times their current rents to afford a comparable home. On the other coast, similar economics apply. You could lease a three-bedroom, four-bath home in the pleasant Los Angeles neighborhood of Colfax Meadows for $4,300 a month. The same house would sell for well over $1 million and set you back at least $6,000 on the mortgage payment alone, plus more than $1,000 a month in property taxes.

You’re not really throwing money away when you send a check to your landlord, anyway. You’re exchanging it for a place to live. You’re also getting flexibility and freedom -- things you sacrifice when you buy a home.

When you’re a renter, it’s the landlord, not you, who is generally responsible for maintenance, repairs and fixing the toilet that blows up in the middle of the night. If the neighborhood should start to slide, or you get or lose a job, you can up and move, often with just a few weeks’ notice.

It’s true that you may have to deal with rising rents and recalcitrant landlords. Homeowners, however, are often stuck with rising taxes and maintenance costs, as well as recalcitrant neighbors.

Moving is never fun, but moving when you own a home is an expensive, time-consuming process. Finding a buyer can take months in all but the hottest markets, and you should figure selling costs will eat up about 10% of your home’s value, once you add agent commissions and moving expenses.

In other words, homeownership is more like marriage; renting is more like living together. Make sure you’re ready to be wedded to a house before you propose to leave behind life as a renter.
‘I need the tax deduction’
The notion that you should buy a house just for the deduction has always been faulty, but just got more suspect with the latest proposals to cap the mortgage interest write off. (See "At risk: your home-mortgage deduction.")

If these proposals succeed in becoming law, the tax benefits of mortgages in expensive cities could decline dramatically. Someone with a $500,000, 30-year fixed mortgage today, for example, now pays about $30,000 in interest the first year and generates a tax break of nearly $7,500, assuming the homeowner's in the 25% bracket. If deductible loans are capped at $300,000 and homeowners are given a 15% tax credit instead of a full deduction, the tax break associated with the above mortgage would shrivel to just $2,685.

Even if the law doesn't change, buying a house just for the mortgage break would be like giving somebody a buck just to get 35 cents or less in return.

That's because your write-off is limited to your tax bracket. If you’re in the top federal tax bracket, every dollar you pay in mortgage interest only saves you 35 cents in taxes. Most people get even less, since they're in the 25% or lower tax brackets.

Don’t misunderstand -- the tax break is nice, and you need somewhere to live. But you should make sure you can really afford to own a home before you take the plunge.

Remember that many of the real costs of owning a home aren’t deductible. Uncle Sam won’t give you a break for insurance, repairs or maintenance, for example -- and those costs can really add up.

Most homeowners should plan to spend at least 1% of their home’s purchase price each year on maintenance and repairs, says finance expert Eric Tyson -- and more if they plan to hire someone else to do all the work. Tyson, co-author of “Home Buying for Dummies,” recommends setting aside some money each month in an emergency fund. You may not spend the whole amount every year, but sooner or later a big expense will come along -- a new furnace or roof, for instance -- that will consume several years’ worth of savings.

If you fail to maintain your home properly, you’ll pay even more when it comes time to sell. Many buyers won’t even bid on a property that shows significant neglect. Even in hot markets, buyers are likely to ask for expensive concessions to pay for the repairs you should have been doing all along.
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The best advice on the issue of whether to buy vs. rent remains the time-tested version: Buy a home when the timing’s right for you, when you can swing all the costs and when you plan to stay put awhile. That way you can ride out any downturns in the market and benefit from any appreciation while enjoying a nice and affordable home in the meantime.

Liz Pulliam Weston's column appears every Monday and Thursday, exclusively on MSN Money. She also answers reader questions in the Your Money message board.