Introduction
There are many factors that affect the decision to purchase a home besides the American Dream. For most people, having a stable income is not sufficient enough to make a purchase of a home. There are economical factors that can play a detrimental role where making the wrong decision can become costly. Such factors include some of the ten principles of economics and the strength of the economy as a whole. All of these factors play a role in which I decide if buying a home is in my best interest.

There are ten principles of economics; these principles are based on the ways that people make decisions, how people interact, and how the economy works as a whole. In deciding to purchase a home, the principals that weigh on my decisions are: facing trade offs, the cost of something is what you give up to get it, rational people think at the margin, markets are usually a good way to organize economic activity, and a country’s standard of living depends on its ability to produce goods and services. The trade off to owning a home is expense. Owning a home is more expensive than renting a home. This is because the owner pays for all repairs, maintenance, and upkeep. The owner also pays for all utilities. When renting a home, since the owner pays the cost of repairs, maintenance, upkeep and some utilities, the renter does not have to come out of pocket for these costs. Along with owning a home comes property taxes, which in my city, these taxes are due twice per year and depending on the worth of the home and property, can become quite costly. A benefit of owning a home would be that all remodeling would be to the owner’s liking and they can choose how they want the structure of the home to look inside, they can add onto the home to make it larger, they can also paint the walls with any colors they like. The