If you can buy low and sell high it’s worth it. Especially if you’re positioned to buy when you can lock in low mortgage rates. Above 6% you might be better off putting your down payment into the stock market and renting.

It’s also more likely that you’ll feel good about spending money to improve the home if you think you can get the money back when you sell. (And then you get to live in a more pleasant place for years)

> Especially if you’re positioned to buy when you can lock in low mortgage rates. Above 6% you might be better off putting your down payment into the stock market and renting.

"Locking in" a rate for multiple decades is mostly (only?) an American thing:

* https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15214842.2020.1...

* https://www.investopedia.com/why-your-30-year-mortgage-exist...

* https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/07/why-the-30-year-fixed-rate-m...

* https://www.deeded.ca/blog/why-canada-doesnt-have-30-year-fi...

While a ≥20 year amortization period is common, the mortgage term is generally shorter (2-5, 10 years) is most other places.

It's okay to do things that don't maximize your return.

Everybody is so obsessed with squeezing out the maximum amount of money from everything, it's exhausting.

> If you can buy low and sell high it’s worth it.

Or, hear me out: buy low and rent high.