Homeownership means fixed housing costs. While rents are increasing at record levels, the payments and interest rates on a fixed-rate mortgage remain the same over the life of the loan.

Owning gives you opportunities renting doesn't. The ability to freely customize your living space, increased privacy from neighbors, improving your credit score by making on-time mortgage payments, and deducting mortgage interest from your taxes are just some of the additional benefits of homeownership over renting.

Rising prices lead to increased wealth. Unlike renting, you build up equity when making mortgage payments on a home. As home values rise over time, this increases the amount of low-cost cash you can access with a home equity line of credit to finance improvements or other expenses like tuition. If you bought a home 15 years ago, you likely would have accumulated $197,500 in home equity — $141,700 of which would be price appreciation.

Let the experts at National Iron Bank help meet your first time homebuyer needs today. Click here to learn more!

Excerpt from The Mortgage Reports