Choose carefully

THOSE millennials sure do get written about a lot. When they’re not busy voting in elections, they’re allegedly killing off entire industries (like weddings and breakfast cereal). But the latest data out on millennials shows they’ve joined another club—one you don’t want to be in.

Some millennials in the right financial circumstances (those who don’t live in Portland or Austin) have arrived at the party of home ownership. But after the excitement wore off and realization of a 30-year mortgage payment set in, some of those millennials found themselves members of the Homeowner’s Regret Club, not a fun group to join.

Yahoo Finance reported nearly half of all homeowners have regrets, and for millennials, that number jumps to 63 percent. Here’s more from the finance news site:

“Homeowners identify the costs of owning a home as the primary source of their buyer’s remorse. Nearly 20 percent of homeowners said that unexpected maintenance and other hidden costs were their largest pain point. That number jumps to 25 percent among millennials.”

It’s pretty common advice to stop renting and get into a home as soon as it’s financially possible. But with numbers like these, it shows caution is of the utmost important when making the decision to buy a home.

Hindsight is always 20/20, and this definitely won’t help those in the Homeowner’s Regret Club. But before you sign that mortgage, think long and hard. An astounding 79 percent of Americans still think owning a home is part of the American dream. If you can afford it and are happy with the home you’re buying, it absolutely can be part of the dream.

When it comes to home purchases, consider the advice of a silly old bear: Think, think, think.