Why Most People Are Still Glad They Bought a Home

With everyday costs up, mortgage rates above 7%, and plenty of economic uncertainty, it is reasonable to wonder whether buying a home right now is a decision that could be regretted later.

One useful piece of perspective comes from the people who already made that decision.

A NerdWallet survey conducted in August 2026 found that 74% of Americans who bought their current home say they are glad they did. Another 13% feel just OK about it, 10% have mixed feelings, and only 3% regret it (see graph below):

That does not mean every purchase works out, or that buying is right for everyone today. It does point to something worth understanding about why most owners feel the way they do.

Homeownership Is a Long-Term Decision

When deciding whether to buy, it is easy to focus on what is happening right now: today's mortgage rate, whether prices rose or fell last month. Those things matter. But a home is not usually something a buyer holds for a year or two, and the longer view changes the picture, especially for prices and equity.

According to data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), home prices nationally rose 33.4% over the five years ending in the second quarter of 2026 (see map below):

As a mortgage gets paid down and the home appreciates, the owner's stake in the property, the equity, grows. That steady build is one of the main financial reasons owners tend to look back on the decision favorably.

That wealth effect has been measurable. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) found that a typical homeowner built about $147,000 in housing wealth over the five years through late 2024, as prices rose in the large majority of metro areas it tracks. Bankrate has since cited the same research, describing it as nearly $150,000 in wealth gained over five years.

The national figure also hides wide variation. In the same FHFA data, five-year price changes by state ranged from a decline of about 2.3% in the District of Columbia to a gain of about 52% in Vermont. National averages are a useful backdrop, but the market a buyer is actually purchasing in is what determines the result.

Zoom Out Even Further

Over decades, the numbers get larger. FHFA data shows national home prices up about 336% since 1991 (see map below):

That does not mean prices rise every year. They have fallen before, sometimes sharply. And it does not mean buying is automatically right today. A purchase makes sense only when the payment works and the plan to stay is long enough. What the long-term data does show is why trying to time the market perfectly often matters less than buyers expect.

Over time, that equity can become a real financial resource. As Freddie Mac explains:

“Your home's equity is part of your total wealth as a homeowner. If you decide to sell your home, the equity you have built over time will come back to you in the sale. . .

If it's time to upsize or downsize, you can use that cash for the down payment on your next home.”

What One Month of Local Data Can and Cannot Tell You

Kansas City offers a good example of why short-term numbers can mislead. In September 2026, the median sale price in Leavenworth County, Kansas, was 2.4% lower than a year earlier, while Miami County, Kansas, was up 12.9%. Read in isolation, one looks like a market turning down and the other like a boom.

Year-to-date through September, both told a calmer story: medians were up 3.5% in Leavenworth County and 7.4% in Miami County compared with the same period of 2025. Across all eight area counties tracked in the local data reviewed for this article, year-to-date medians were higher than a year earlier, with gains ranging from 1.9% in Johnson County, Kansas, to 7.4% in Miami County.

Monthly medians move with the mix of homes that happen to sell in a given month, not just with home values. Smaller counties swing even more: Miami County recorded 44 closed sales in September, so a handful of higher- or lower-priced sales can move its median sharply. A month with fewer higher-priced closings can pull the median down even when values are holding steady. That is exactly why a single headline number, local or national, is a weak basis for a decision that will play out over many years.

For a buyer, the practical step is to look past the headline median. Year-to-date and multi-month trends for the specific county, and comparisons between similar homes in the same price range, say far more about what a purchase is likely to look like than any one month of data.

Questions That Matter More Than Timing

• Does the monthly payment fit today? It should work at today's rate, with room left for maintenance and the unexpected.
• How long is the plan to stay? The longer the horizon, the more time to absorb short-term swings and build equity.
• What would waiting cost? Another year of rent, plus whatever happens to prices and rates in the meantime, is a real cost too, even if it does not feel like one.
• Is there a cushion after closing? Cash reserves matter as much as the down payment, especially in the first few years of ownership.

Munkel Real Estate Solutions approaches the buy-now question in that order: start with the payment and the time horizon, then look at what local prices and inventory are actually doing in the part of the metro being considered, rather than reacting to a single month's headline in either direction.

Bottom Line

Uncertainty is real, and buying only makes sense when the numbers work. But most owners say they would make the same choice again, and the long-run price data helps explain why. The better question is not whether this is the perfect moment. It is whether this purchase works for this household over the years it plans to own the home.

Sources: NerdWallet, 2026 Financial Regrets Study; Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index, Q2 2026; Freddie Mac; National Association of Realtors (NAR); Bankrate; Heartland MLS and the Kansas City Regional Association of REALTORS® (KCRAR), September 2026 Local Market Updates for Johnson, Miami, Douglas, Leavenworth, and Wyandotte Counties, KS, and Jackson, Clay, and Platte Counties, MO.