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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My inlaws sold their house (not DC area) for about what they paid for it 30 years ago. Their neighborhood, which was middle class and seemed stable when they bought, developed issues over the years. They have good retirement savings and pensions so are doing fine but it’s a really good thing they didn’t have to rely on appreciation on their house for savings. Between inflation and the amount of mortgage interest paid, their house was a catastrophe from an investment perspective. From the perspective of just having a place to live, it was fine. [/quote]

Very similar experience with my mother-in-law.  She's still living in the house she and her husband bought nearly 40 years ago.  After adjusting for inflation, the house is worth basically the same now as it was when they bought it.  40 years and no real appreciation whatsoever.  It served its purpose as a house, but was awful as an "investment."  This was not in the DC metro, but was in a close-in suburb of another large east coast metro.[/quote]

But if we're just looking at appreciation, isn't that the wrong metric?

[b]If you rent out a house, you get someone else's money to pay the mortgage, which then becomes your money when you sell. [/b]

And even if you just live in a house, you get the money when you sell - in contrast to being a renter, where the money never becomes yours.[/quote]

Instead of renting it out you could sell it and then invest the proceeds. [/quote]

Also most rentals in DC aren't cash flow positive when all of the costs are factored in.  The purchase price and taxes are just too high in most part of DC compared to rents.[/quote]

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