the ROI for stocks would have to be significantly higher than the ROI from real ...

jogjayr · on March 21, 2018

> you need to pay for housing either way.

Yes but you don't have to pay the same amounts. There's a reason "rent-or-buy" calculators exist.

com2kid · on March 22, 2018

Once owned outright, a home also serves as insurance against economic downturns.

Rent, 4 or 5 year economic slump and people are out of a home.

Ownership doesn't lead to this. Even mortgages have more forgiveness for late payment than most rental agreements.

Multi-generational property ownership also helps. Buy a good house now, and your kids/grand kids have insurance against economic downturns.

closeparen · on March 22, 2018

The insane levels of year-over-year appreciation/rent hikes make any calculator say "buy" in expensive major cities, regardless of the difference in cost today.

jogjayr · on March 22, 2018

Citation needed. That's not the case in the SF Bay Area, Manhattan/Brooklyn, Vancouver, or Toronto. The new tax bill's provisions to cap mortgage interest deductions has further tilted the balance against expensive houses.

dahdum · on March 22, 2018

That depends almost entirely on the rent to value in their local market, and is far more volatile than index funds.

I rented a 1.3m home in CA for $3,500/month, made no sense to buy at that level other than a forced savings program.