If you’ve been dreaming about owning your own home, but have held off because you’re afraid it might not be a good investment right now, you might want to do some rethinking. The recent housing market crash has certainly demonstrated why not to buy a home for speculative purposes, but if you’re looking for a place to settle down, get some homeowners insurance, raise your kids, and just live, now is the perfect time to buy a house.

What Goes Down Must Come Up

No one can predict with any certainty whether house values will go up or down and when, but one thing is fairly certain: no matter how far down they go, they will rebound and start to recover. It’s a cyclical market. While not generally as volatile as stocks and other investments, home values do go up, and at times they do go down.

Buying a house on the speculation that the value will go up is silly anyway, when you factor in the fact that most of what you pay for the first 10 years of a mortgage is interest. That’s why it’s just not usually a good idea to buy a house (financially anyway) unless you plan on living in it until it’s paid off (or nearly so).

Now May Be the Best Time

That said, however, if you want your own home, the prices are likely as low as you’re ever going to see them. So, if you have good credit and can afford the costs associated with home ownership, now just might be your time. Make sure to consider costs such as homeowners insurance and maintenance. When factoring in the costs of home ownership.

If you do decide to buy a house, take your time and find one that you really want. If you’re smart about this, you’ll be living there twenty years or more. You want your home to be a place that you’ll always love. It’s not an apartment, and you won’t be getting out of the lease in a year and a half. So, don’t let your desire to be a homeowner get the better of you. Take your time, know what you want, and be very deliberate about choosing the house that’s right for you.

Photo via NatalieMaynor