Scale it down... you don't buy a million dollar home with a mortgage. That is crazy. Buy a smaller, inexpensive "starter home", and move every few years, so the increase in property value both upgrades you to a more valuable home, and pays off more of the debt. Maybe 3 homes and 15 or so years later, you have that million dollar home and zero mortgage. And you got to erase the capital gains taxes during the process because you get that $500K write-off every time you move, not just at the end.
Now re-do your math for 15 years after that, and the final number will look better for the same 30 year time frame.
I'm not saying real estate is always the right answer - it isn't. There is no guarantee that values will rise like they have over the last decades, and there are costs along the way. But even so, you probably end up in a better place when you start out at a reasonable scale.
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Scale it down... you don't buy a million dollar home with a mortgage. That is crazy. Buy a smaller, inexpensive "starter home", and move every few years, so the increase in property value both upgrades you to a more valuable home, and pays off more of the debt. Maybe 3 homes and 15 or so years later, you have that million dollar home and zero mortgage. And you got to erase the capital gains taxes during the process because you get that $500K write-off every time you move, not just at the end.
Now re-do your math for 15 years after that, and the final number will look better for the same 30 year time frame.
I'm not saying real estate is always the right answer - it isn't. There is no guarantee that values will rise like they have over the last decades, and there are costs along the way. But even so, you probably end up in a better place when you start out at a reasonable scale.
But there are 0 houses under 1 million in my area.
Start with a townhouse or condo or move or get a better job.
condos are a million in tech metros