For better or worse, things have changed, and our perception of what success is should be changing with the times. If the worlds youngest billionaire, and now “Man of the Year” can build an empire and change the world from a rented house, you shouldn’t feel bad because you decide that home ownership isn’t the right thing for you.

Owner occupants should never consider home price appreciation in their purchase decision. For one, most people dramatically overestimate how much house prices will go up. When people start factoring in appreciation, they are usually just playing games with numbers to find some rationalization for an emotional decision they already made.

The truth is that home prices cannot rise faster than inflation unless we are inflating a bubble. The only thing surprising is that reasonable people who understand this are being heard right now. Usually, the bullshit from the NAr and the general level of kool aid intoxication in the media makes more noise.

We have managed to obtain the opposite of what we desire, and we are paying a huge amount of money to do so. We would be better off to do nothing. The money we spend as a society to encourage home ownership actually diminishes it.

From 1994 to 2005, the homeownership rate reached record highs, thanks largely to innovations in the mortgage-finance market that reduced down payments and minimized equity. This shifted the basic wealth-building proposition of homeownership away from savings to an almost exclusive focus on capital gains.