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Real Estate Articles, Selling Real Estate, Buying Real Estate
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Home Ownership Tax Savings are Huge!
Real Estate Tips, from industry sources
You really have to get down and look at the numbers to see what a difference it makes to own rather than rent. In practice, it works like this. Let's say your family income is
$70,000 and you pay $1200 in rent. If you buy a home for $240,000 with 20% down, your payment might be
$1558 a month. Don't get upset about the 20% for now, just follow along here for the sake of discussion.
The $1558 comes from a home loan at 7% (much higher than 2004 actual rates), real estate taxes, and insurance.
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You notice that $1558 per month is more than $1200, but wait! $1479 of that is a tax deduction, meaning in the first full year of homeownership, you would pay taxes on an income of
$52,255 instead of $70,000. Since you are in the 28% tax bracket, you would save
$4669 a year in taxes, or $414.05 a month!
So let's recap. Your rent was $1200, and now your mortgage payment is $1458, but the taxman is giving you
$414.05 of it! So your new cost to get into your own home is really just $1143.95
-- less than you were paying in rent! But it's actually better than that, because we haven't figured any state income tax savings. And remember that
$50 - $100 a month we mentioned back at the beginning of this article? That's the part of the loan that goes towards paying it back, called "principle reduction".
We didn't figure that into the calculation either, but that's like putting that money every month right into the bank -- your own bank called your own home.
But you say, "getting money back from the tax man is great, but how can I possibly make the
$1558 payment with my current take home pay?" Well, you don't have to, you can take the extra money out of your check now, and let Uncle Sam tax what's left, remember?
You do this by telling your employer to take less taxes out of your check using a W-4 form. This way, you get the extra
$414 a month now to make the mortgage payment with, rather than getting a huge tax refund at the end of the year!
"But I still have a big problem", you're thinking, "Where do I get the 20% down, that's
$48,000!" Yes, it is. Now we get to where the rubber meets the road. You have to really want your own home, really believe that this is what you have to do for yourself or for your family.
You can of course, buy with 10% down, 5% down, or even zero down, but in those cases, your monthly housing
expense will be higher than rent, even after figuring the tax savings. If you can handle the payment,
it still works out in your favor, because remember the 7% a year? That
$240,000 house will be worth $256,800 next year, an increase of $16,800! So you might have to spend
$200 a month more than you did in rent. But look - you paid $2400 a year more, but you gained
$16,800. That's an amazing return, way better than a 401K, even a company matched 401K!
The Amazing Power Of Leverage
That brings us to one of the best advantages to buying real estate, the benefit of leverage. As we said earlier, if you buy a house for
$300,000 in ten years it'll be worth $600,000 so you have doubled your money in 10 years. Ask any friend of yours who has been a home owner for
any length of time. They will confirm these numbers.
But here's an important point - you didn't have to come up with the whole $300,000 for the house. You only put 10% down. You only invested
$30,000! So when your $30,000 becomes $300,000, that is actually a ten-fold increase in your money! Think about that. You invest $30,000 to get $300,000! Not bad.
More Benefits Down The Road
But there's still more. Once the value of your home increases, you can borrow against it and use the money for whatever you want. The money is tax-free, and the interest on this money is tax deductible.
So while your renting buddies are paying 11% (or more) on their car loans with after tax money, you're deducting the interest on your car payment because you're a homeowner.
You probably already know people who have used this method to pay for college for their kids, get the down payment to buy a second home or an investment property. Some people just borrow against the house for tax-free retirement income.
But here's the best part - when you sell that $600,000 house that you paid $300,000 for, you can pocket the gain tax-free, up to
$500,000 for a married couple. The money in your 401K may grow tax-deferred, but when you take out the money to spend in your retirement, you must pay taxes on it. With your personal residence that you've lived in for 2 years,
you just put the gains in your pocket and pay no tax. This is incredible advantage that no other investment can offer!
In fact, there are some interesting ways to retire using these tax-free gains, but that's another subject.
All in all there is no other sort of investment that gives you appreciation, leverage, tax deductions and tax-free capital gain that home ownership does.
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