[themartorana]

A house is a risky investment. Over the life of a 30 year mortgage, you may spend 100% the price of the house on interest, plus ever rising property taxes, repairs, roofs, driveways, land care and maintenance, and more. There's also transfer tax in some municipalities (2% on buy and sell in Philadelphia for example), 6% to a realtor to sell, and so on.

You'll need your house value to rise to at least ~225% of its initial purchase price over the life of your mortgage just to break even.

That doesn't count the time you spend on repairs and maintenance of your property that you never get back.

Here in the US, I have friends still under water from 2008, so house values don't always go up (and this is in the pricy DC metro area).

All investment is a risk. Never buy a house because you feel you should - do it because you want to. You want to put in the kitchen of your dreams, you want to live near family, you want your kids to grow up in one house their whole childhood.

If you make a profit in the end, wonderful! But don't do it for that. Rather, decide the kind of life you want to lead (do you enjoy moving every few years? Do you want to live abroad for 5 years? Do you prefer he flexibility and lack of responsibility that comes with renting?) and live that - if a house fits into it, great!