Originally Posted by crewdawg

It's a small bit of propaganda. Most Americans have just been told that buying your home is the American dream and the best financial decision of their lives, so many fail to actually run the numbers and see if that is such a great "investment. Youtube rent vs buy, there are tons of great breakdowns. I'm guessing many would be shocked to see the breakdown, especially with the higher interest rates today and if they plan on only staying 10-15 years. The equity you speak of is often washed away by the unrecoverable costs of owning the home and the opportunity costs lost with your down payment.

One small example, a $500k house bought with todays interest rates will cost ~$260k in interest, over the next 10 years. This is before you add in 10 years of property taxes (about $11k/yr on a house this size in my area), insurance, mx costs, renovations and the opportunity cost of dropping $100k on a down payment vs investing it in something. I think some on here think landlords can just suddenly go, welp, rent just went up $1k/month…that’s just not the case. They rent what the market allows. I'm seeing rents in my area on nice homes that you're probably better off renting. All of this doesn't even take into account if you used the down payment to buy a decent rental or two that help pay your mortgage.


Now if you bring in the emotional aspect of own your home, that's intangible, so that's for everyone to decide for themselves. I don't deny that peace of mind has some value. However, just because you feel better by owning it doesn't make it a good financial investment. I'd wager that there are many on here who would be financially better off if they had rented, especially if they bought recently.