First-time homebuyers are MIA -- renting

[mostlylong]

@btresist

Yes, the owner has to pay a monthly mortgage, but the renter has to pay a monthly rent. The simplifying assumption is that the two cancel each other out.

Thank you, I needed that one sentence to understand why a house could have the same appreciation as S&P.

Concise is better, for me, at least.

Looking at this statement below, and even with all of the further explanations, lost me.

I don’t have a strong view of rent vs buy, every property is unique.

I just view housing as an expense to be minimized for a given level of comfort.

@albaby1

historically residential home prices have appreciated about 4.3% per year (from the mid-1960’s). The S&P500 has returned about 10.4% per year over the same time period. But because home purchases are typically leveraged, the typical home purchaser’s actual return over a 30-year time frame on a 20% down payment would be about 10.1% - pretty close to the historic return on the market.