We’re taught that buying a house is the realization of the American Dream and for many millions of people across the country, owning a home provides tremendous value over a number of years in many different ways.  This value can be seen through a home’s simple ability to provide shelter from the elements as well as through its providing a foundation upon which multiple generations can celebrate life and family.

The truth is ...

... home ownership is only part of the American Dream.  There’s no denying a fair amount of commercialization surrounds the real estate industry.  Home ownership and the associated images of a car, dog, and white picket fence have been around for a long time.  These popularized images distract us from the other (and arguably more important) elements of the American Dream.  Overall, the dream includes the opportunity for prosperity and success achieved through hard work, discipline, and individual ability—a dream of prosperity not possible in the native country of our immigrant ancestors or even possibly in the United States as recently as a generation earlier.  Also captured in the dream is the opportunity for our children to pursue education, careers, and social mobility not possible for their ancestors—opportunities not possible for our parents or grandparents because of the economic, political, or social restrictions in their native lands (or this country's earlier history).  Simply put, the American Dream is really about achieving one’s potential through freedom from artificial barriers.   

The truth is that the American Dream is alive and well for many millions of Americans who do not own their own homes.  They just may not be aware that they’re living it.  This idea of home ownership has settled into the minds of people across this country as a necessary requirement to achieving the American Dream.  But that notion itself is its own artificial barrier to prosperity and success—an unnecessary barrier standing in the way of you realizing your potential—and living life the way you want to live it. 

Sometimes a home becomes a prison.

Homes lose value in ways not apparent to most people.  This loss of a home's value can happen over time or even overnight for any number of reasons.  For instance, children inevitably grow into adults in search of their own new nests leaving behind a big empty house.  Less tangible causes are fluctuating conditions in global markets that force negative changes in the local economy.  Sometimes relationship dynamics between couples or family members are not what they once were which leads to irreconcilable differences making cohabitation impossible or unnecessarily difficult.  In other cases, the actual cost of maintaining a home becomes unsustainable whether it’s caused by long overdue repairs, forgone seasonal upkeep, reduction or loss of household income to meet mortgage payments, or ever increasing tax liabilities.  In more dramatic instances, weather or fire, unexpected health issues, or loss of a life partner can change the value of a home in the blink of an eye.  Under all of these conditions and scenarios like them, your home loses value to you as a person (if not the market).  It is no longer a source of enjoyment or fulfillment.  It keeps you from doing things you would like to do, trips you would like to take, and chasing dreams you've put on hold for so long.  But for some reason, you feel like you can't leave.  You feel as if you're trapped—trapped in your own home!  In this way, a home can and does become a prison. 

"Homes lose value ... for any number of reasons."