My house hasn’t lost any value!

I get sick and tired of reading how home home values have dropped. I can tell you without question that the value of my home hasn’t dropped, if anything it has increased. That’s not because of anything special about my house. Its because I actually understand the role of my home. I understand how it functions in my life, security and wealth development. My home is not an investment and I hope that neither is yours. I believe that if you bought your home as an investment, you bought it for the wrong reason.

The argument that some misguided souls will make is “You can’t sell your home for as much now as you could have a year ago, so it has lost value.” That level of ignorance perplexes me. For some reason people have accepted the ridiculous premise that a home is an investment, when in my opinion it is not. It can help produce financial security however, but even that security is not based on how much it could be sold for, it is based on what it can save you and the opportunity to use funds otherwise when it is completely paid off.

The value of my home is not in dollars as much as in its ability to keep the rain off my head, the wind off my face and the cares of the world outside and at bay. The value of my home is in its ability to allow my family to gather, put all of our feet under the same table and share a meal, discuss the day’s events and laugh at the silliness in some of life’s experience. My home’s value is in its ability to provide the place where I can enjoy a quiet evening with my wife and be renewed by a restful night’s sleep. My home is a place of peace, privacy and contentment. AND NONE OF THAT HAS CHANGED!

In addition, in our case, we are blessed that our home is free of mortgage obligation and provides the wonderful benefit of allowing us to maintain our standard of living without having the obligation to earn enough more money to make large ongoing monthly payments. That is a great burden lifted and allows me the freedom to spend time doing the things I consider important as well as some of those I enjoy. This fact also provides a welcome level of peace and security, knowing that no lender can take away our property. My home provides me with security in so many different ways. What someone else may be willing to pay for it is irrelevant, because it is not for sale.

For those still paying on your homes I hope you have amortizing loans and that every month you get closer and closer to paying it off. I hope you realize that when you have removed that burden of debt from your life, then, if you choose, you have removed the burden of producing that much more income. You have also provided the opportunity, again if you choose, to use available funds that were before paying off the house, for investment, retirement, travel, education, assistance to those in need and the buildup of even greater financial security. This kind of security and freedom is really quite remarkable. And it is available to all who intelligently pursue it.

I believe that the real estate community has done a great disservice to people in convincing them to view and treat their homes as “investments” and are meant to produce profits. That mentality has proven its illegitimacy by producing grossly inflated prices, unwise lending, excess debt and now financial tragedy to those who bought into the false promises of ever-increasing prices. The mixture of greed and stupidity has produced a cocktail of economic imprudence that is resulting in a financial hangover that will be painful for many years to come for those who too liberally consumed it.

It all comes down to this, there is a certain organized collection of wood, glass, steel and stucco that has produced us a home. Our castle. Our refuge from the cares, concerns and pressures of the world. It is every bit as valuable to us today as it has ever been. So while others are lamenting a marketplace that is really just correcting a host of bad past decisions, at the end of the day I will still relax and unwind in my modest home without one second’s worry about if I can sell it for more today than I could have yesterday. That doesn’t matter to me one bit, because my security, my happiness, my contentment, my protection, my sanctuary are all wrapped up in my home, and as I said before, it is not for sale. We can talk investments all day long and my home will never be included in the conversation, because it is not now, nor will it ever be, an investment.