[RHSeeger]

My apologies, I meant interest and maintenance.

And I would say that maintenance certainly counts as a financial loss when you're considering the property from an investment perspective. If it was a paper investment (stock/bond/whatever), it wouldn't exist. It's part of that specific investment.

[mitthrowaway2]

My point is that unless you're living in the woods, you have to pay for maintenance. Maintenance has a cost, but not an opportunity cost. If you choose to invest in tech or gold or whatever instead of a home, then you're still paying indirectly for maintenance for whatever structure you're occupying.

At least as a homeowner you do have the freedom to advance or defer certain maintenance work according to your budget.

[staplers]

  If it was a paper investment

Those have "maintenance" fees too at most brokerages.

[bombcar]

And even if they don’t, there’s still maintenance somewhere being paid by someone.

Some are lower maintenance than others (physical gold you have to secure, etc) but everything needs at least some work to keep from wasting away.

The point is that the simplistic “I made money selling my house” takes into account few if any of these costs (many which can be accounted as valid for the need of shelter).