Still many reasons to buy a home

Yet homeownership still offers the same benefits and advantages it always has.


These include:

• The opportunity to build equity and create wealth over time.


• Protection from rent increases or eviction at the whim of a landlord.


• The pleasures of a relatively larger home, suitable for a family, and with a backyard, garage or other auxiliary space.


• The freedom -- design review boards notwithstanding -- to improve, remodel or redecorate to suit one's own style and budget.


• A variety of lucrative income-tax breaks.


• Pride of ownership and a greater sense of security and stability.

Housing's nightmare has been intense and its aftereffects will not be easy to cure, yet there is still hope for U.S. housing markets and the many businesses that depend on them. Real estate, as an industry, needs to explain those benefits of home ownership to a new generation of understandably skittish potential homeowners, bring back the sexiness of home ownership and recreate the Australia Dream in a way that's meaningful today.

Home builders, mortgage brokers and Realtors intuitively understand this argument. But that understanding must be translated into action if home ownership is to regain its footing and brighten its faded glory. Here are some suggestions:

• Build smaller homes and discourage mansionization to make home ownership more affordable for more people, not just at the time of sale, but until long after the mortgage has been paid in full. Super big houses may have been mildly irresponsible in the good ol' days, but today they're inexcusable.


• Support sustainable housing that incorporates green living and proximity to public transportation.


• Introduce basic home loans that are easy to understand and free of hidden "gotchas."


• Reduce the cost and complexity of buying and selling a home and make the process friendlier, easier and more efficient.


• Encourage home buyers to spend only as much as they can truly afford to buy a home.


• Support home buyer education and counseling programs that create lifelong homeowners, not just renters-with-mortgages.


• Think long term. Encourage home buyers and homeowners to adopt financial plans and set aside savings for expensive home repairs.


• Adopt ethical standards and practices that rise above the competitive fray and instill confidence in home buyers and sellers.


• Reinvigorate community involvement. Step up. Volunteer. Take part. Be seen. Set an example. Make a difference. Social networking may be an effective way to generate new business, but it's no substitute for showing up in person and helping out.

And lastly, if you work in real estate, but don't already own your own home, maybe it's time for you to go ahead and buy one.

Marcie Geffner is a freelance real estate reporter and former managing editor of Inman News.