Point taken about the high rate environment -- I'm not sure where I thought that other money would go. But it's still not obvious that you would be better off

Point taken about the high rate environment -- I'm not sure where I thought that other money would go. But it's still not obvious that you would be better off under your plan. You're financing two assets, you home and your portfolio with some mixture of debt and equity. Without making assumptions about the expected return of the housing market, the return on your portfolio, the variance of those returns and the horizon, its not clear that you'd still be better off. You say take advantage of the cheap (tax-favored too) leverage -- I'd be concerned medium term variance in returns. That ETF you pointed to is down over the past 10 years and underperformed the market -- and it looks like it missed a few dividend payments during the crisis. https://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=0&chdd=0&chds=0&chdv=1&chvs=Linear&chdeh=0&chfdeh=0&chdet=1455751666472&chddm=987277&chls=IntervalBasedLine&cmpto=NYSEARCA:VWO&cmptdms=0&q=INDEXSP:.INX&ntsp=0&ei=4uTEVsCvBcz4esSJg4AF https://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=0&chdd=0&chds=0&chdv=1&... > That's why no other country on Earth that I know of has 30-year fixed mortgages. They are essentially a government subsidy to homeowners via Fannie/Freddie.