[pm90]

It might be hard to understand if you've not grown up in America, but homeownership is considered a part of adult life, of demonstrating you're seriousness and a gateway to adult life. This is sort of changing recently, but only because many millennials are straddled with student debt and jobs that won't pay enough to afford the down payment.

But every single American friend I have either has a home, or dreams of home ownership in the suburbs. And it makes sense, if I grew up in a home with a yard, I would probably want something similar for my children too. That kind of emotional connection is hard to overcome.

[warp_factor]

Yes, Home ownership is seen as the pinnacle of social status. This is stupid and people should rethink this preconceived notion.

In the bay area for example it doesn't make ANY sense to buy right now (Price to rent ratio, google it) but still people are flocking on every shitty apartment on sale. That's because they want to feel that little ego boost when they say they are "homeowners".

[pm90]

People will flock until they can’t and that’s when the bubble starts popping.

All the sfba homeowners who bought for cheap but are now sitting on millions of dollars of property could easily make a tidy sum if they were willing to sell for less but they will feel like they left money on the table. Ultimately when the bubble pops, everyone will sell for less but they will all think it’s perfectly rational because the “market is down”. I don’t get that perspective at all. Buy low and sell high, within reason.

[fizzbuzz123]

So the Tax advantages and building equity are worthless and play no part in peoples desire to buy instead of rent. Ok

[warp_factor]

you should search what "opportunity cost" means. The market is highly inflated compared to other investments because people are blindly buying without thinking at almost any stupid price. Your comment is a perfect example of that.

[malvosenior]

You can leverage your money much better with a mortgage though. You just need a small down payment, but you get the upside (and downside) on the entire value of the home.

I'd also argue that most other assets are also highly inflated. The P/E on most tech stocks for instance looks a lot scarier than the overall real estate market. I'll add that people have been saying the Bay Area housing bubble will pop for over 30 years. It hasn't yet.

[warp_factor]

This is a bet on the future price of the home. And a lot of simulations have shown that you will come ahead in stocks unless you are in an exceptional growing market and not moving for at least 5 years.

There is a huge lobby in society to convince you that owning a home is the way to go (banks, real estate agent, other homeowners and people repeating this nonsense all the time). Don't let this fool you and make the calculations before buying anything.

[malvosenior]

I didn't say you could leverage it to guaranteed success, just that you can leverage a far larger amount of capital. That of course means larger risk along with the larger reward. No one is going to loan you 300k to invest in the stock market but they will to buy a house.