4 ms·

There is only one winner in the last 40 years of policy induced price volatility. The finance industry. Human beings need to live in houses. Housing is one of

• kaashif 4y ago
  > The answer is you reduce your housing exposure by buying. My exposure to housing is certainly much higher if I buy than if I don't (and invest that money in e.g. stocks). What do you mean by exposure here?
  • lumost 4y ago
    Housing has been on a long term uptrend. In 2010 I rented in my neighborhood for 700/month. A comparable property would rent for 4K/month now. This is outside of the city center in the northeast. As I am naturally short housing, locking in a specific price point has massive benefits. If I had bought then, inflation alone would have reduced my long term monthly liability. As it stands I waited until 2018, locking in a 3k/month rate for housing. If housing corrects back to 2000 levels, I will sell my place for whatever I get - walk away from the mortgage and purchase a home in cash. The thing that makes housing a strange asset class is that individuals are naturally short. Hence you carry a variable long-term liability on housing costs from day 1. Purchasing limits that liability.
• rdtwo 4y ago
  Don’t forget tax liability. By living in a house you own you get to keep the money you would have paid for rent and you get to avoid paying for that rent in post tax money. It’s kind of a complicated thing to wrap your mind around but owning the things you use (car, house etc) pulls those transactions out of the taxable economy thereby becoming a tax advantaged incentive.