It's a complex topic, even details are left out in this long form article. 1. In our highly financialized society, and with many of us essentially worshipping

It's a complex topic, even details are left out in this long form article. 1. In our highly financialized society, and with many of us essentially worshipping money, it first needs to be said that not every choice needs to be financially optimal to be the best choice for your life. Buying a home is not just a financial choice, but a lifestyle change. They work with different units so the math cannot cross over, save for maybe considering comparable goods/utility in an economic sense (what else could you do with the same financial outcomes, which do you prefer) 2. Buying a house comes as a mix of rarifying asset, high value depreciating good, and liability. The land in a growing city is increasingly becoming rare (like the art example in the article), a depreciating house (eg, depreciate your roof over 20 yrs, your hot water tank over 5-10 etc), and a liability -- you now have to pay HOA + taxes on the value of the property until disposed of. (And note the steep exit fee that using a realtor costs. That significantly eats into your appreciation) 3. Because your house's rental market value is roughly proportional to it's underlying asset value, the more your house appreciates, the more marginal opportunity you give up by living in it. That is, you essentially are consuming the rental value of the house as a lifestyle choice -- that's essentially the definition of a liability, therefore 4. 4. The home you live in is a liability (a recurring cost center and lost opportunity cost, potentially still at net profit after the appreciation of the land), a property you rent out is an income producing asset (potentially still at a loss after expenses). 5. Anecdotally, most people who I have seen swear they made "so much money" on their home are actually failing to do the math well. Total cost of ownership of a home + buy/sell transaction costs + tax burden + maintenance + lost opportunity to invest in other assets has rarely, if ever, been profitable in my maths. Speculating on distressed assets at market bottoms or other contrarian times would be the exception, but that can be very profitable for experts with capital in most any asset market (eg used cars made money for a few years there).