Ownership of Home Cited as Sound Investment Tool

You can’t live in a certificate of deposit and you have to pay taxes on capital gains, but you get to deduct interest and taxes on a home.

The point Chicago Title Insurance Co. is trying to make--based on a survey of housing trends in major metropolitan markets going back 12 years--is that an owner-occupied home is a darn good investment.

Of course, Californians have known all this for about a dozen years and New Englanders are going through a boom period of housing appreciation, but the title insurance firm estimates that housing values will inflate at a compounded annual rate of between 4% and 5% over the next 30 years or so.

“This doesn’t mean that all properties will necessarily inflate at this rate,” said John Pfister, a Chicago Title market research vice president. “Some may inflate more and others less, and there may be periods when home prices are actually declining in value.”

Assuming that inflation boosts home prices an average of 4.5% a year, a house worth $133,400 today would be worth $457,500 in 28 years, he said.