There’s no need to sit in a dark corner in fear anymore. We all know that in the short-mid term houses are greatly depreciating assets.
If you find your dream home and can afford it and almost nothing will make you lose it in the next 10-15 years then you should seriously consider it. That goes for anyone who is sure that they are totally fine and unfazed financially from any of the following possibilities and puts at least 20% down:
1) If you are married you know you won’t get divorced in the next 10-15 years or if you will then you can make it through the divorce without liquidating the house.
2) You will have a job that allows you to stay in the house or you don’t need a job at all to make the payments.
3) Your career won’t force you to relocate in the next 10-15 years or you have the cash (Cash not investement cashout, see #5) or company benefit that will allow you to get out from under the house.
4) You are comfortable in the fact that you got a nice low interest rate but will be fine with comps getting heavily trounced with the inevitable rate increases at some point in the not-so-distant future. (As long as you stay in the house for 10-15 years you will likely weather the loss in equity).
5) You know you will make out fine in a deep recession or even depression and the likely resulting losses in all asset classes you invest in. You won’t need to depend on these assets to make payments on the house in case of job loss.
These are all very realistic possibilities in the current economic environment. If you know none of these things will affect your homeownership and find your dream home then there is no reason not to jump in. No fear involved but instead a realistic approach to buying into that asset class in the current heavily negative economic environment that even the “experts” don’t know the outcome of.
