5 Reasons I’m Happy We Bought a House in 2020
These things helped me through the chaos that was 2020
In January of 2020, my wife and I made the jump and bought a house. We had been looking for a few months and stumbled upon a new build that was pretty much exactly what we needed. It had 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a decent sized yard, and most importantly, we could afford it.
One year later, we are still in the house. We love having our own home. While there are a few things that aren’t so great about owning a home, here are 5 reasons I’m happy we bought a home in 2020.
Space
One of the main reasons we decided to buy a home was space. Like many first time home buyers, we were looking to be able to spread out a little more. We needed more than the one-bedroom apartment we shared.
Buying a home in the suburbs of South Louisiana afforded us a pretty decent amount of space. Like I mentioned before, we have 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. In addition to that, we also have a nice sized front and back yard, an attached garage, and attic space.
Having this amount of space has allowed friends and family to comfortably stay with us. It has also allowed us the space to store all of our things and stop renting a storage unit. We currently use the spare bedrooms as offices and guest rooms, but eventually, we will have room for children.
Projects
Personally, I like watching home improvement shows more than doing home improvements. My wife, on the other hand, loves to actually do the work. Owning a home has allowed her the opportunity to actually do a few home improvement projects that we won’t have to undo when we leave.
Renting an apartment or a house is nice, but it doesn’t allow you to put that special touch on something. Owning a home is the exact opposite. You can almost do whatever you want to make the home uniquely yours.
Over the course of the year, we’ve put up a fence, rearranged the garden, hung a few fixtures, and painted the front door Friends purple. My wife has a few more project ideas, and honestly, owning a home has afforded us the freedom to make them all come to life.
Freedom
If you notice a running theme so far, it’s freedom. One of the absolute best things about owning a home is having the freedom to pretty much do whatever you want without repercussion.
Want to hang a picture, shelf, or television? No problem. Want to come and go as you please? Don’t worry about it. Have pets? No pet rent. Want to paint your doors or walls funky colors? Go for it. My point is owning a home equals freedom.
Equity
You didn’t think I’d write about owning a home without mentioning equity, did you? Another reason I’m happy we bought a home is the equity. If the home is in a decent area or an area that is up and coming, the equity in your home increases, thus increasing your wealth over time.
I’m not a finance guy or a mortgage lender, but I do care about building wealth for myself and my family. I believe that in a year or so the value of our neighborhood and subsequently our home will rise. This basically means that whenever we are ready to move into another home, we can sell this one for more than we bought it for.
There are other financial benefits like a tax break and the ability to borrow against the equity we have in the home. If those are things that sound interesting to you, I suggest you do a little more research. Just know that buying a home is an investment that has the potential for financial benefit.
Peace (mostly)
The beauty of living in an actual house is the distance from neighbors. We bought a single-family home which means that our house is completely separate from anyone else’s. We don’t share walls, a ceiling, or a floor with anyone. Unless our neighbors are extremely loud, we don’t have to worry about being too loud or our neighbors making too much noise.
I added mostly because we actually do have loud neighbors. We can’t hear what’s going on inside their house, but during the summer, they spent a lot of time outside at night playing loud music with loud guests. Other neighbors have filed noise complaints, and since around October, they’ve been pretty quiet.
Buying a home in the suburbs brings a certain level of peace. While writing this, I’m sitting outside on my backyard patio listening to cars go by. There’s not really a lot of construction or crime in our area so most of the time there’s really no noise.
Buying a house is a big decision. There are a lot of factors that play into it. The process can be lengthy and scary, but also pretty rewarding. We didn’t know that 2020 was going to be such a weird year where we were pretty much forced to stay at home. But we are definitely glad we were able to spend so much time in our new home and enjoy the benefits of homeownership.