Too often I see discussion of buying a house from purely a mathematical/investment perspective. I agree that the numbers need to be top of mind for this type of purchase... however these discussions neglect the non-tangible aspects of home ownership that are very real and important. Sense of physical security, familial bonding, community involvement - all can be increased with home ownership.
The intent isn't to neglect these advantages; rather, I (probably wrongly) assume that everyone is familiar with these advantages -- this is my intent in noting the psychological difficulty of dropping from a 500k home to a $1k/month apartment.
The intent is instead to bring to attention the nature of the financial trade-off. I use a pretty simple model, but you can dive into the counterfactual yourself: what's the price you're paying for owning your home instead of owning an index fund and renting? How low could you go on rent, and what would be the impact on your financial life? Is that tradeoff worth it to you for the advantages
The answer can certainly be "yes" -- but I think people are biased toward assuming yes when they haven't actually examined the issue.
Too often I see discussion of buying a house from purely a mathematical/investment perspective. I agree that the numbers need to be top of mind for this type of purchase... however these discussions neglect the non-tangible aspects of home ownership that are very real and important. Sense of physical security, familial bonding, community involvement - all can be increased with home ownership.