Not sure of location of parent comment, but in the United States, buying a house includes a lot of initial expenses, called "transaction costs." Things like pur

Not sure of location of parent comment, but in the United States, buying a house includes a lot of initial expenses, called "transaction costs." Things like purchasing title insurance, prepaying taxes and insurance for the escrow, paying for inspections and appraisals, and of course the bank has some fees they roll into the mortgage. So unless you value the house you just purchased for more than the purchase price and make up the difference, you'll lose net worth equal to those transaction costs. EDIT: Ah I see they were implying they went from $200k net worth to NEGATIVE. I hope the transaction costs were less than that!