In the early 90's, we hit a trough that lasted half a dozen years so people have to really think of it as a long term plan. Anything else, and you may as well be gambling on the stock market. What most first time buyers, Jerry and Sue, will have to put most if not all their savings on the line in order to buy. The house is probably the biggest investment that you'll ever make and you need to think of it as an investment and not just something that you're going out and purchasing. But owners get to subtract the tax savings from mortgage interest and taxes.
Owners also get to cash in on appreciation.
Renters get none of that. If you're there 5 years and you haven't had a lot of maintenance costs and a lot of fix up costs or a lot of improvements that you wanted to make on your own, then you came out a little bit ahead because of your tax savings. What George is trying to tell us is maintenance and fix up costs typically run into the thousands. It's the new roof, new paint, landscaping. Yet, experts say - in a seller's market, buyers are so eager to get into a house they completely forget to factor that in.