It is a bit more nuanced than that. Buying a house is a highly leveraged (if you have a mortgage), undiversified and relatively illiquid investment. House pric

It is a bit more nuanced than that. Buying a house is a highly leveraged (if you have a mortgage), undiversified and relatively illiquid investment. House prices have indeed gone up, but there is no guarantee that they will continue to climb. There is a limit to how high they can climb relative to income. You also picked one of the hottest real estates markets as a point of reference. The returns in many other places are much lower. As a comparison, the S&P 500 with dividends reinvested over that same period (january 1996 to january 2017) has returned 440%. When buying a house, timing is crucial for the return. Renting and monthly investing in the stock market has the advantage that your investment is spread out in time. For most people, the biggest advantage of buying a house with a mortgage is that it imposes a discipline: you have to pay off the monthly instalment. If you rent you might be tempted to spend the rest of your income instead of investing it. [1] https://dqydj.com/sp-500-return-calculator/ https://dqydj.com/sp-500-return-calculator/