This is a common argument I see from the proponents of purchasing a home. In keeping with the recent trend of home hating, I wanted to share this article.

For those of you not looking to read the whole article, I can summarize it in one line: If you live in an area with outrageous home prices [like me], putting money in to a 401k instead of a home will net rougly 25% more money by the time you retire.

Are the intangibles of being a homeowner really worth that amount? Your mileage may vary, but to me the answer is clear.

Note: He didn’t consider the costs of rent. As I stated in my previous post, my current rent is maybe 1/6th of what a mortgage would be so take that 25% and chop off maybe 5%. If, as I expect, I move in to a place with a higher rent, I would expect my rent payment to be ~50% of a mortgage so we’re now dropping to ~12.5% more money by investing in retirement instead of a house in what I consider the worst case scenario. Still, the intangibles are not worth the (at least) $550,000 extra dollars I’ll have in my pocket by the time I turn 60 (at my current investment rate, I’ll have $4.4mil by then).