It’s something most of us have heard all our lives – save your money and buy a house; it’s the best way toward a secure future. But then when we experience a downturn in the market like we have in recent years, it can make you question whether the old adage is true. Well, I’m here to tell you definitively… it’s true. When all asset classes are compared with each other for which makes the best investment over time, buying real estate comes out the clear winner.

Now this doesn’t mean that every property you ever buy is going to immediately make you money, but if you invest in real estate for the long haul, you are much more likely to experience lasting financial security. And the time to buy real estate is generally when everyone else is afraid to own it. Think about what has happened in the past few years. A lot of people have experienced a huge drop in their net worth, thanks to the drop in value of their homes. These are the folks that are telling you real estate is a terrible investment. Of course they’re also the ones who felt like they were rich when housing prices were at the peak.

My point is that fluctuations in the market are a part of the nature of real estate. Yes, some corrections in value are bigger than others. What you want to do is be in a position to take advantage of those times and buy when everyone else wants to sell. We are experiencing one of those times right now.

But all of this is subjective – what are the real advantages to investing in real estate? Why is it better than putting our money in an IRA and letting it sit there earning us money passively? Well, I’d ask – have you looked at your IRA lately? When all things are taken into consideration, the advantages of investing in real estate can’t be touched. Here are just a few:

• Tax advantages – Since owning a rental property is like running a business, every expense associated with owning and maintaining it is deductible. In addition, if the property is outside the area you live in, travel and lodging to visit the property is deductible as well. And I haven’t even gotten to depreciation yet. According to the IRS, the life of a house is 27.5 years. So you can deduct a little over 3.5% of the value of the house every year for that period of time.

• Capital appreciation – The value of real estate goes up over time. This is true for any 20 year period since housing prices have been recorded. And if you’re lucky enough (or smart enough) to purchase during a downturn, the length of time that it takes to appreciate is even shorter. One other thing to consider with real estate is that you can often accelerate capital appreciation by making improvements to the property. Some will return 2 or 3 times what you put in – or more. Also, keep in mind that with leverage (ie. a loan on the property) capital appreciation still happens, you just happen to have less “skin” in the game and this causes your return to be even greater.

• Cash flow – One of the biggest advantages of real estate is that it can provide cash flow to you in the form of rental income. No matter what the housing market is doing, people have to live somewhere. That’s why buying real estate when values are depressed can be such a huge opportunity. And rental prices tend to go up faster when there is more demand to rent – such as when people are forced to let go of their homes. Generally speaking rental amounts are also indexed for inflation. This means as inflation begins to happen rents should go up as well.

If you need any other reasons for why real estate is a great investment, I have plenty more.  For some exciting information on how you can escape the rat race for good and create lasting, generational wealth by investing in real estate, download my FREE ebook, “How to Find Underpriced Properties:  Secrets for Creating Wealth with Real Estate in ANY Economy.” You can find it here…

http://StreetWisePropertyInvesting.com/Ebook.