When emailing a client of mine in Michigan today we were discussing a cottage that he owns in a laked area south of Lansing. He was talking about the redo that they just went through. He focused on the gorgeous back patio / outdoor kitchen addition, and how they are so far over spent to value on the property that they will never recoup their funds. I laughed inside. We all tend to do this. A house or any kind of property has always been the largest part of our wealth, our portfolio and that has all changed. Now we live somewhere because we want too. Now we redo a house or change a house to live in it, not sell it. It's value may never really exceed any of it, but we do have to live somewhere.
I read an article today about divorcing couples fighting over who gets the house, because neither of them want it. A huge change from five years ago. It is now a liability, like credit card debt, or student loans. But we have to live somewhere.
It has been suggested that we should all be leasing, not owning in today's market. It probably is true. We all should be saving our money and not wasting it on living where we want and how we want. But we do have to live somewhere.
I tend to invest in houses. I do it for the pure joy of living in them. Not with an eye for resale or profit. I have always been that way. I cannot add up all the profit that I have made on the dozen or so of houses that I have owned, but I know it was there. It helped me buy the next larger one, and the next and so on. Now that seems a little trite as times have changed.
I love owning a home so that I can paint rooms strange colors, and do faux treatments that a buyer may not like, but the years that I live there are spent in happy enjoyment of it. It all seems worth it some how.
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