“The average American family now owes more on their home than it is worth.” We have read and heard this repeatedly during the last year.
The economic experts and talking heads making this announcement evidently don’t know the difference between value and worth. And it’s sad they confuse a house with a home.
A house has numerous “values” and these can vary greatly depending upon who is making the determination and for what purpose. A tax office sets an “accessed value” based upon the land and its improvements. An appraiser will use many other criteria to establish “market value”, and Realtors and buyers calculate value in their own special way.
The WORTH of a HOME is a completely different matter. A home is more than a structure that provides shelter, and its worth is far more than any dollar figure. The sounds of children playing in the yard and climbing trees, memories of neighborhood cookouts and birthday parties, the joy of the family at the dinner table, the smell of real home cooking in the kitchen, those comforting little noises at night; all these things and countless others make our homes worth much more than any house.
Certainly there are too many houses with market value less than the current mortgage, but home ownership was never meant to be a short-term investment. Regardless of the value of their house, to the average American family, the worth of their home is priceless.
Later,
Dennis
Opening Doors Until You Close! ©
The economic experts and talking heads making this announcement evidently don’t know the difference between value and worth. And it’s sad they confuse a house with a home.
A house has numerous “values” and these can vary greatly depending upon who is making the determination and for what purpose. A tax office sets an “accessed value” based upon the land and its improvements. An appraiser will use many other criteria to establish “market value”, and Realtors and buyers calculate value in their own special way.
The WORTH of a HOME is a completely different matter. A home is more than a structure that provides shelter, and its worth is far more than any dollar figure. The sounds of children playing in the yard and climbing trees, memories of neighborhood cookouts and birthday parties, the joy of the family at the dinner table, the smell of real home cooking in the kitchen, those comforting little noises at night; all these things and countless others make our homes worth much more than any house.
Certainly there are too many houses with market value less than the current mortgage, but home ownership was never meant to be a short-term investment. Regardless of the value of their house, to the average American family, the worth of their home is priceless.
Later,
Dennis
Opening Doors Until You Close! ©
