This will be a short personal finance post. There is an odd series of claims made in the ongoing debate about the merit of home ownership in the personal finance community. Some very famous financial personalities/authors have said rather controversial things about buying a home. Among these takes are: “your house is not an asset,” “your house is a liability,” “renting will make you rich,” and “all debt is evil.”
A lot of these statements can probably be partially excused as attempts to have a “hot take” to shock readers into undertaking a critical examination of the conventional wisdom that owning a home, rather than renting, is a no brainer or “the best way to build wealth.” Similarly, the slogans in favor of buying homes are also probably attempts to shock people into the (huge) action of buying a home. So what is the right answer?
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