Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background.

Is Cost of Living overstated?
after 30 years, you'd have a million dollar house vs a quarter million dollar house. You've captured three quarters of a million dollars in rent, given my napkin math hypothetical. As I figure the math, a 250,000 house appreciating to a million dollar house in 30 years requires a sustained ~4.9% appreciation every year--seems unrealistic. The historical rate of inflation, on average, has been closer to 3-3.5%; a 3% appreciation would give a final value of $589k.  This also doesn't taken into account the idea that you may have bought a property during a housing bubble, and so then you wouldn't get 3% year-over-year returns. But also, in terms of "capturing rent", you are not factoring in necessary or possible costs that renting doesn't have:  mortgage interest and insurance, maintenance, property tax, insurance, buying and selling associated fees, and, importantly, opportunity costs (in that the money not tied up in the house could be invested elsewhere).   So it is not such a slam dunk as you make it out.  Many use the NY Times buy/rent calculator to compare renting vs. buying.