CHIC (Pearl)
The benefits of ownership vastly outweigh the upsides of renting, especially over the long term. According to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index, home prices in the San Francisco Metro Area rose a whopping 375% from 1990 to 2021, and every mortgage payment builds your equity and allows you to leverage more of that value. Speaking of payments, instead of basically throwing money away on rents that increase with inflation, a fixed rate mortgage locks in your monthly budget for the duration of the loan. You can also deduct interest payments on your tax return and take advantage of other tax incentives. And if you don’t need the home, you can always rent it out and get an even greater return!