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Single Family Houses
BY RJ PALANO
Most people in the United States live in single-family homes. Even though the home ownership rate has dropped to 62- 64 %, depending on the location, single-family houses are still and always will be the most desirable type of property in which to live in the United States. For most people in the U. S., the house they own and live in is their single greatest asset, and the largest accumulation of their wealth is in their home. For others, single-family houses are the safest investment on the planet for a variety of reasons.
Some of benefits of investing in a single-family home Compared to every other investment available, including Gold, Stocks, Certificates of Deposit, Bonds, Annuities and Mutual Funds and Crowd Funding, single-family houses are the only asset class that has all the following attributes:
1 Dividends paid every other month in the form of rent.
2 Depreciation ‒ An income tax write-off based on the value of the improvements which offsets rent.
3 Appreciation ‒ As the value of the land and demand goes up, so do houses.
4 Hedge against inflation ‒ Houses are a hard asset and, as inflation rises, values go up.
5 You directly control a single-family house and can sell it whenever you want.
6 Houses are easy to understand. If you’ re reading this, chances are you live in one.
The downside to other investment options In my opinion, the stock market, no matter how you look at it, is gambling. You’ re betting on someone telling the truth and then hoping your stock goes up based on good management and property valuations. This involves trusting a lot of people and a lot of‘ what ifs’ for things to go right. We’ ve all seen stock market
52 MARCH 2017 SA Real Estate Investor www. reimag. co. za