With everything that has happened in the housing market over the past couple of years, there’s one blast from the past idea that it seems should be occurring to people. But, by and large, it isn’t. Try this on for size: when you take out a home loan, start with the idea that you’re going to be living in the house for 30 years or so, until you pay it off.

It worked well for our grandparents, the last generation that managed to live within its means. By and large, most of the ones we now call the “Greatest Generation” bought a home and lived there until the mortgage was paid off.

Of course, there are many factors that make it a bit more difficult to do that these days, and perhaps even impractical in some cases. Still, all too often homeowners choose to flop from house to house and mortgage to mortgage for completely unnecessary reasons, needing little more provocation than the idea that they qualify for a loan on a bigger or better home.

Part of the problem today is a general ignorance on the part of home buyers concerning the way a mortgage works. When that ignorance meets at the crossroads with a mortgage broker or company who is only looking out for the bottom line, it can lead to a bad situation for the borrower. It could be argued, even, that these are the major causes of the current housing crisis.

Back to the today’s homeowner, who only spends an average of seven years in a house before selling it and borrowing another one. Even a basic understanding of the way interest and home loans works would make it clear to just about anyone that, if you are trading mortgages every seven years, you aren’t much better off than if you were throwing your money away on a rental. That’s because, for the first several years of any loan, most of what you pay only covers the loan’s interest.

Of course, the longer you are in any loan, the larger the percentage of what you pay goes towards the loan’s principle. If for no other reason, this is a good reason to stay in a home until you’ve paid it off, or at least until you’ve built up considerable equity.

Life has a way of happening, and your circumstances might demand that you buy a new home. Circumstances like a new marriage, more children than you bargained for, the need to move for employment, or a disaster affecting your current home are all perfectly good reasons to seek a new home and new home loans.

For that matter, there’s really nothing wrong with upgrading to a bigger house if you can afford it and it’s really what you want. Just be aware that constantly doing that prevents you from building equity, which most experts agree is the best reason to buy a house. Most experts since our grandparents’ generation anyway…the experts back then mostly believed the best reason to buy a house was to live in it.

Photo via omniNate