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I semi-regularly plug numbers into this Buy v Rent calculator by NYT [1]. They're pretty equivalent in the 10-30 year range and match housing prices I've seen.

It's hard to beat the SP500's >8% average return [2].

[1] (paywalled) https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/buy-rent-cal...

[2] https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/042415/what-average...

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That can change depending on the area

Then, I live in Germany.

There is a 28% tax on stock market returns, but selling your home is tax free

Absolutely. I think one of the fun things about that calculator is that you can mess around with the numbers to try different situations. Perhaps there's a way to account for that tax (e.g. by using ~5.8% returns as the after-tax rate).

Not in Berlin. It's tax free after a few years only, to prevent people from flipping houses.

Also capital gains tax is around 26% (incl. solidarity surcharge), if it hasn't changed.

However there are other scary things about house ownership in Germany. For example being liable for street work in front of your house for the first few decades. The city can decide to repave the street and stick residents with the bill.

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