Quote:
Originally Posted by chassis
NorCalAthlete NorCal real estate is a distorted cartoon, because of its high price appreciation. compared with the rest of the United States....
....Summary: real estate doesn't return what an equity portfolio can return. Northern California may be one of very few exceptions to this.
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Very much so, which is why you’ve got to look at northern ca a bit differently and advice from other areas can only be applied selectively in this market. It also may not even beat an index here either, surprisingly. I checked and our last house was a 90% return but the S&P 500 returned 133% during the same time period.
However putting the money into the index fund wouldn’t have given me any utility that having a house did, tax benefits, etc. and it overlooks the fact that I would have still had to pay someone rent, reducing available income to invest on a continual basis.
Home ownership shouldn’t be primarily driven by a desire for, or expectation of, appreciation, it’s a nice by-product that you may get that you won’t get if renting.