One founder told me that a decent personal investment strategy of his was to be a forever-renter and invest in REITs instead. That way you get the financial ups

One founder told me that a decent personal investment strategy of his was to be a forever-renter and invest in REITs instead. That way you get the financial upside of homeownership but more diversification instead of having all your equity locked up in a single asset. It sort fits the changing profile of this generation, which is more mobile and doesn't want to own cars or huge assets. On the other side, while I personally don't know enough about the behavior of REITs across the entire country, I can tell you that Sam Zell's Equity Residential is causing huge problems for the Latino and black community of East Palo Alto, which is adjacent to the Facebook campus. They're getting hundreds of eviction notices per month, which the community lawyers have to fight off.