Most personal finance experts recommend viewing your primary residence as a liability, not an investment. Although housing prices generally increase over time, it's never a guarantee. Plus, you are always paying something on it over the course of ownership, such as mortgage interest, taxes, maintenance costs, renovation costs, utilities, etc. Over the time that you live in the house, those costs can (and often do) outpace the gains made by a rising real estate market.
There is a sub-branch of real estate investment, however, that has come to be known as "house hacking" where you explicitly DO treat your primary residence as an investment. Typically this includes buying a home larger than you need and renting out the extra space to roommates. Or buying a duplex and renting the other half. Purchased right, these can cover the cost of the mortgage, meaning you're sort-of living in your own home rent-free.
Another thing people do is move into a run-down house bought at a discount, live in it for two or three years, fix it up the whole time, sell it at a profit, and then move onto the next one.
Neither of these are usually palatable to those with families, but they are pretty popular as a way to get into real estate investing for those that are young, motivated, and have otherwise stable jobs.
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Most personal finance experts recommend viewing your primary residence as a liability, not an investment. Although housing prices generally increase over time, it's never a guarantee. Plus, you are always paying something on it over the course of ownership, such as mortgage interest, taxes, maintenance costs, renovation costs, utilities, etc. Over the time that you live in the house, those costs can (and often do) outpace the gains made by a rising real estate market.
There is a sub-branch of real estate investment, however, that has come to be known as "house hacking" where you explicitly DO treat your primary residence as an investment. Typically this includes buying a home larger than you need and renting out the extra space to roommates. Or buying a duplex and renting the other half. Purchased right, these can cover the cost of the mortgage, meaning you're sort-of living in your own home rent-free.
Another thing people do is move into a run-down house bought at a discount, live in it for two or three years, fix it up the whole time, sell it at a profit, and then move onto the next one.
Neither of these are usually palatable to those with families, but they are pretty popular as a way to get into real estate investing for those that are young, motivated, and have otherwise stable jobs.