Buy a House or Hold on to Cash?

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Just a thought on build vs. hold the cash. The housing market is way down. I did some major remodeling to my home and then had it appraised. I broke even only on the value of the products that were added to my home. I did not gain a time on the labor costs which I supplied myself. So my thought if you build you will actually lose money in your investment. I suppose if you bought used you would come out the same way before you sold your original home. Maybe your best bet would be to downsize and buy a home used and not as expensive. Then invest the difference. Today's housing market the buyer can get some pretty sweet deals.

mark davis of MO 11:35AM August 06, 2008

People "in their 50's" should avoid taking a new $100,000.00 mortage if they can. The only reasons to be leveraged like that later in life are 1) you can't have a place to live at all without it, or 2) because the house is going up in value faster than the interest you're paying----an unlikely trick in this market.

Daniel David of NM 4:26PM August 01, 2008