I think a lot of people incorrectly view personal residences as investments. They don't produce income and their valuation is tied largely to comps which reall

I think a lot of people incorrectly view personal residences as investments. They don't produce income and their valuation is tied largely to comps which really translates to other peoples' feelings and purchasing power at that time. Mortgaging a home is arguably a poor use of debt unless you're actually able to put a similar sum to work making a higher return elsewhere. If you're investing in real estate by purchasing a cash-flowing property like apartments, then you'd be crazy not to use leverage. You can easily calculate your ROI based on property cashflow and projected value based on rent growth. And your ROI is always going to be bigger if you only put up 25% of the value and let the bank pay for the rest as long as you're cashflowing more than the mortgage payments.