Is Your Calgary House an Expense or an Investment?

What do you think? Do you see your home as an investment or as an expense? If you're like most Canadians you view your home as an investment. According to a recent poll by Scotiabank, 77% of Canadians consider their home to be an investment.

There were a lot of other interesting statistics that came out of this poll as well. For example, it's surprising to see that in Alberta, 40% of the homeowners here are mortgage free. These numbers line right up with the Canadian statistics, which show that 40% of homeowners nationally don't carry a mortgage. In British Columbia this number goes up to 54%, in Ontario 47%, in Atlantic Canada 42% and it goes down in Québec with only 37% owning a home that doesn't carry a mortgage.

As well, according to this poll, 69% of Canadians own their own home, whether it carries a mortgage or not.

Canadians are also in agreement about becoming mortgage free as quickly as possible. With 81% of the people that were polled nationally saying that becoming mortgage free quickly is important, 29% are paying their regular mortgage payments more frequently.

It's a perfect time to take advantage of the low interest rates and switch to biweekly payments instead of monthly payments or to make lump-sum payments when possible. By utilizing these low rates of interest while they are still around the potential is there to shave years off of your mortgage term.

It doesn't seem to hurt as much to make those monthly payments when you do view your home as an investment instead of merely as an expense. The weight is a lot lighter when you feel like you're putting your money towards something instead of just paying off another debt.

When you consider that approximately 34% of Canadians are going to be relying on the equity in their home during their retirement years, according to the poll, it’s a lot easier to view the investment side of making these monthly payments. If you have found that you dread the thought of paying your mortgage every month just try switching around your thinking and view it as a future investment instead of as a debt.