I think there's a lot of people who view homeownership as an investment strategy but that has never been the case it is a lifestyle. Investing in real estate i

I think there's a lot of people who view homeownership as an investment strategy but that has never been the case it is a lifestyle. Investing in real estate is an investment strategy but that's separate from homeownership. Even moderate market investments have risen at a pace that meets or exceeds the growth that we've seen in home prices. The one benefit that homeownership does provide as far as an investing strategy is that it inadvertently locks you into this investment in a way that other investments don't. If you were to measure renting versus owning and taking the difference in cost and applying it to investments renting is a much more attractive option over the long term. There is a definite sacrifice in lifestyle because owning a home provides a big lifestyle benefit that a lot of people want. The real problem with renting versus owning as far as investment goes people in general especially the lower middle class and below who are sold on this idea of home ownership as an investment are poor at investing over the long term. So when they rent they tend to spend most of the rest of their disposable income instead of putting a portion of it away in a long-term investment. The ownership of the house automatically causes them to have a long-term investment that they can realize in 10 or 20 years. So while I agree with the author that real estate will not continue to rise at the pace that it's risen in the past percent gain is not really the measure of an investment or a capital asset like this. What I do believe will continue to take place with real estate is that as an inflation in adjusted investment vehicle it will continue to maintain pace. So that does mean that home ownership real estate will continue to maintain pace and grow as an investment compared to inflation. And over the long term homeownership as an investment vehicle does not tend to outpace inflation except in very limited jumps. The key to any real investment is finding one that will outpace inflation by a decent margin that is the only way to see growth. That is possible to do with investment in real estate but very difficult to do with home ownership.