I guess OP and many other's main point is that one should put his money at work, not sitting. You equity is just sitting inside your house doing nothing. House prices rise and fall too. If we ignore house price, it's like have 100s of thousands of cash sitting at home collecting 0% interest while inflation keeps going. Let alone the mortgage interest tax benefit.
【在 K******S 的大作中提到】 : I guess OP and many other's main point is that one should put his money at : work, not sitting. You equity is just sitting inside your house doing : nothing. House prices rise and fall too. If we ignore house price, it's like : have 100s of thousands of cash sitting at home collecting 0% interest while : inflation keeps going. Let alone the mortgage interest tax benefit.
If you want to use money in 2008-2009, you will be dead meat no matter where you invest, because the housing market is down big also, and you cannot easily take money out of a house at that time. The safest bid at that time was cash, but that does not earn you anything. That said, I think invest in housing has some advantage. Suppose the rent can cover everything, and you put 20% down, 2k will become 10k after 15 years, that's 11% annual return. If you invest in stock market, normally you can only expect 8%. Of course you need to spend time managing the house.