[DanielHB]

In Sweden 30% of interest payments on mortgages is tax deductible.

When I sold my old flat and even though it only appreciated like 10% over 4 years (about the same as inflation) I still got a lot of money when I got the loan settled. 4 years of amortization at 2% per year is 8% of the original value of the apartment, tax free. And my mortgage+HOA fee was actually lower than my rent was before even before the interest tax deduction.

So after sales fees (also tax deductible), moving costs, capital gains, etc I think I saved around 15% after-tax of the total value of the apartment compared to renting over a span of 4 years. Given my downpayment was 15% I roughly doubled my downpayment money in 4 years.

That is a return of ~22.5% compounding per year _after tax_, which is much better than the average stock market returns. Of course I got there is some luck involved (my apartment didn't go down in value, I didn't need to do any renovations, etc), but I could potentially have profited even more if it had appreciated more. And that is on top of the real estate risk diversification benefits compared to stocks.

[thfuran]

In the US, 100% of mortgage interest (for the first 750k of loan) and property tax (up to 40k combined w/ other state/local taxes) is deductible. Property ownership gets such favorable tax treatment that it’s kind of ridiculous.