Poll: Homeownership Bigger Achievement Than Career Success (2024)

FAQs

Poll: Homeownership Bigger Achievement Than Career Success? ›

It topped being able to retire (66%); having a successful career (60%); owning a car, truck, or other automobile (50%); having children (40%); and earning a college degree (35%). Older adults are more likely to rate homeownership highest, the survey finds.

Homeownership not only builds a sense of pride and accomplishment, but it's also an important step toward achieving long-term financial stability.

The security and piece of mind that come with home ownership is a great accomplishment in many people's lives, and once they have overcome the obstacles, they find that other goals they had set out to achieve become much easier to attain. There is a great sense of belonging to the community once you own a home.

The Majority of Americans Still View Homeownership as the American Dream. Buying a home is a powerful decision, and it remains a key part of the American Dream. In fact, the 2022 Consumer Insights Report from Mynd found the majority of people polled still view homeownership as a key life achievement.

Owning a home opens the door to investments, buying power, and improving credit, and allows families to pass that wealth on to their children who then continue to pass it on through the generations.

Shopping for a house can make you happy

People get a lot of joy and pride from the home-buying process, such as touring open houses, and getting approved for loans, because ultimately it ends with purchasing a house, which is a major life milestone, Eppli says.

Pride of ownership is profound

Buying your first house is a mega-accomplishment, an important life milestone, even a realization of the so-called American Dream. In a recent survey conducted by the National Association of Realtors®, buyers ranked “desire to own my own home” as their primary reason for buying a house.

As a renter, you don't build equity over the long term and if you leave, you don't get to take any profits with you. Owning a home can be empowering and emotionally rewarding. The money you spend on your mortgage every month and improving your home yields a long-term investment benefit for you instead of a landlord.

One of the chief benefits of owning a home is that over time, increased home equity can add to your net worth and give you a low-cost source of cash as needed. The ability to build equity is what sets homeownership apart from renting, which has no return on investment.

Is buying a house a big accomplishment? ›

Share. Nearly 75% of Americans say that owning a home is a more significant measure of achievement than having a successful career or even raising a family, according to a survey from Bankrate.com of about 2,500 adults.

The decline in homeownership halted between: 2012 and 2016 for householders with less than a high school education (19.9% to 20.8%). 2016 and 2018 for those with a high school degree (30.8% to 31.4%).

Homeownership has long been accepted as a core component of the American dream, as it confers several economic benefits on homeowners, including the ability to accumulate wealth by accessing credit, building equity and reducing housing costs.

Most have paid off their mortgages. In 2020, 58% of the state's equity millionaires owned their homes free and clear. Statewide, there has been a dramatic rise in the number of Californians who have paid off their mortgages, from 1.6 million households in 2000 to 2.4 million in 2020.

A third of California homeowners own their properties free and clear. Nearly 2.4 million homeowners across the state in 2021 had no property mortgage, the third highest among the states and Washington, D.C., the Orange County Register reported.

According to Census Bureau data, over 38 percent of owner-occupied housing units are owned free and clear. For homeowners under age 65, the share of paid-off homes is 26.4 percent.

When you're in your middle years or older, chances are you'll have a higher, steadier income and a better idea of where you'd like to settle down than when you were first starting out. You'll also leave yourself time to build excellent credit, which may qualify you for the best available mortgage rates and terms.

But is there a right age when these factors should be in place? And are these the factors Americans should consider when deciding to become a homeowner for the first time? In 2022, the average age of first-time homebuyers was 36, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). This is up from 33 in 2021.

Half the older adults in our sample (bought their first house when they were between 25 and 34 years old, and 27 percent bought their first home before age 25 (figure 1). But only 37 percent of household heads ages 25 to 34 and 13 percent of those ages 18 to 24 owned a home in 2016.

How does owning a home create wealth? ›

The Financial Benefits of Homeownership

Another key way homeownership helps you build wealth is by providing you with equity in your home—the portion of your home that you actually own outright. As you make mortgage payments and your loan balance decreases, your equity will increase.

Many studies over the years have shown that homeowners are, on average, happier than non-homeowners. In my own calculations, using the General Social Survey, 21 percent of people who own their home are “very happy,” compared with 16 percent of those who pay rent.

Women were more likely than men to agree with this, as 48 percent of women found it made a potential partner more attractive, versus 43 percent of men. Men, however, were slightly more likely to say that it made their potential partner very attractive.

Buying a house gives you ownership, privacy and home equity, but the expensive repairs, taxes, interest and insurance can really get you. Renting a home or apartment is lower maintenance and gives you more flexibility to move. But you may have to deal with rent increases, loud neighbors or a grumpy landlord.

A major disadvantage of renting to own is that renters lose their down payment and other non-refundable charges if they decide not to purchase the home. Some sellers may even take advantage of renters by making it difficult or unappealing to purchase the home — with the goal of keeping the down payment.

How long are you planning to settle down? If you're only going to live in a place for only a year or two, renting makes more sense. However, if you're going to stay there for three years or more, then buying would be a good idea and it becomes a better idea the longer you stay.

A guideline commonly cited by real estate experts is to stay at your house for at least five years. On average, this is how long it takes a homeowner to make up for mortgage interest and closing costs.

They expect home prices to improve in Q3 & Q4 this year, over in 2023 they expect the medium home will delince 5.6% compared to 2022, to $776,600 in 2023 ($822,300 in 2022). They had predicted a median 2023 price of $758,600 forecast last October.

Fannie Mae, Mortgage Bankers Association and National Association of Realtors expect mortgage rates to drop through the first quarter of 2024, by half a percentage point to about nine-tenths of a percentage point. Figures are the predicted quarterly average rates for the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage.

Is owning a home a long term goal? ›

Buying a house comes within the gray area that lies between your short and long-term goals. Owning a house can be part of the big picture hence a long-term goal. However, it's the little steps in the form of short-term goals that propel you into reaching your long-term goals.

If you buy now, your money might have more buying power. As inflation continues to rise your money buys less. If you act now, then, you might be able to afford more home with your dollars than you would if you wait and inflation continues to rise.

According to KSL, securing a home and a mortgage is among the top 10 most stressful life events. The stress of buying a house ranks right up there with having a child or changing jobs. We get it. Buying a home, moving, taking on a mortgage—it all happens almost at once.

64% of Americans own real estate. 35% of the American population does not own their own homes.

Yet no-mortgage owners in California are only 33% of all homeowners – and only four places have a smaller share: D.C. at 24%, Maryland at 28% and Colorado and Utah at 30%.

Homeowner vs.

In the under-35 age group, 65% of American households are rented. Meanwhile, in the 65+ age group (senior citizens), 79.3% own a home. The median age of homebuyers is 47 years old, while the median age of renters is 38 years old. A whopping 64% of millennials who own homes regret their purchase of a home.

Millennials are not buying homes as readily as the previous generation. Delaying marriage and having children is keeping many Millennials at home with their parents. Tighter lending criteria can also make homeownership unaffordable or virtually impossible for those without much credit history.

Not enough homes to buy

For a growing number of people, however, the dream of homeownership remains far out of reach. Inventory is near record lows and the number of sales at the more affordable end of the market is lower than last year because demand is totally outstripping supply.

Zuckerberg reportedly financed his California home with a 30-year mortgage. This is a common type of home loan, although Zuckerberg opted for an adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) while fixed-rate loans are more common. * Points are equal to 1% of the loan amount and lower the interest rate.

What age should you be debt free? ›

The Standard Route. The Standard Route is what credit companies and lenders recommend. If this is the graduate's choice, he or she will be debt free around the age of 58.

Fewer than one quarter of American households live debt-free. Learning ways to tackle debt can help you get a handle on your finances.

While the average age borrowers expect to pay off their mortgage is 59, the number of survey participants who have no idea when they will pay it off at all stood at 16%. In 2019, 9% of those asked didn't know and in 2020, 11% gave this answer.

One rule of thumb is that you'll need 70% of your pre-retirement yearly salary to live comfortably. That might be enough if you've paid off your mortgage and are in excellent health when you kiss the office good-bye.

Nearly Three-Quarters of Retired Americans Have Non-Mortgage Debt. Because so many retirees have little to no savings, it's not too surprising that the majority are carrying debt. The most common types of debt held by retirees are credit card debt (49%), mortgages (24%), car payments (20%) and medical bills (18%).

Thirty years ago, just one of every four homeowners in their late 60s to late 70s still had a mortgage – today, nearly half do. Once people hit 80, mortgages used to be extremely rare – only 3 percent had them. Today, it's one in four, Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies recently reported.

New mortgages—nearly all of which sport higher APRs and higher monthly payments than older mortgages—increased the average mortgage balance to $236,443 in September 2022, a 7.3% rise from September 2021. For the second consecutive year, the average mortgage balance increased by more than $10,000.

Accomplishments are your successes, large or small, that you've earned after you've completed an activity. These successes highlight what you can offer. They can be related to work or to other parts of your life, such as at home, at school, or in your community.

As well as enjoying what we do, we should value it and feel that what we accomplish is worthwhile. Having the willpower to get down to work even when we don't feel like it, and overcoming the tendency we all have to procrastinate, is what makes 'success' more likely.

What are self accomplishments? ›

Personal achievements are, as the name suggests, successes in your personal life. These can include anything from building a house to running the Boston Marathon. In the context of your resume or a job interview, they should demonstrate your ability to: Solve a problem.

Persist and persevere. Never, ever give up. You can't accomplish anything without resolve. No matter how hopeless or impossible a situation may seem, only through persistence will you have the ability to triumph.

Studies have shown that feeling a sense of accomplishment is an important element in students developing positive wellbeing over time. Research also shows the following: People with a strong sense of purpose, persistence and accomplishment perform better at work.

Achievement typically measures an externally imposed standard. Accomplishment typically describes an internally motivated goal. Accomplishment is the inventory of what children have done well in the past and what they aspire to do well in the future for personal satisfaction and lasting fulfillment.

Takeaways: What Are Your Proudest Accomplishments

Talk about something that has happened recently and is somehow connected to what you are being interviewed for or your career path. Choose something that really impacts you or somebody around you. And it happened because of your skills and abilities!

A personal accomplishment is a goal you've reached or an objective you're trying to attain and usually comprises various professional and personal goals, including educational aims, career aspirations, and personal growth.