And let's say that they can sell the house for 600k 10 years later (a 40% increase), then you have to take into account real estate agent commissions and other associated costs with selling, let's conservatively say 6% (36k). So you get 564k from the sale. You pay off the roughly 300k remaining on the loan. Now you have 264k left. Which sounds good, but you paid 220k in interest so now you're looking at 44k "profit." But wait, you put 20% down (80k) so now you are actually 36k negative. And that 80k down payment invested making an 8% return would be 177k after ten years. So you're actually 133k down. And this isn't even including the cost of maintenance and repairs and all the other associated phantom costs that come with owning a home. So using an extremely conservative 1% of the purchase price per year on maintenance that's another 43k for mx over 10 years. So now we're down 176k (note: this doesn't even take into account the portion of your payment that went to principal. Just interest). Owning does beat renting over the long term usually, but it's not a home run like everyone seems to think it is (sometimes if you get lucky with timing it is). Your primary home really isn't an investment either, if you like a house and want to live in it, buy it. But just don't try to rationalize it by telling yourself it's an investment.