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Great take and agree! Obviously, it also comes down to your own personal circumstances and where you are in the world but as a general rule of thumb, yes.

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Feb 28·edited Feb 28

In the real estate debate it's worth including consideration of leverage and market specifics.

Average folk use leverage when buying a property. Eg 100K investment for a 500K property. If the property goes up (or down) by 5%, the return (or loss) is equal to 25% on the downpayment investment. Average folk wont invest with leverage outside of real estate. In this way it's not an apples to apples comparison. If it's a rental unit and the property cashflows, then the 100K investment can grow both by loan pay down (by tenant) and by property appreciation.

Also real estate is very market specific. In Japan, you can forget about much land appreciation outside of Tokyo; versus places like Vancouver, where it can double every 7 to 10 yrs; and decaying centers where it can halve its value in the same time frame. Same investment. Different markets. Totally different outcomes.

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