&gt; Assuming my portfolio does the same as the worst 25 years of the S&amp;P 500, it will still beat buying a house<p>I&#x27;m interested in the analysis here. This is a thought I&#x27;d considered and when I ran the numbers they were about the equal. You&#x27;re buying a house on margin with just 20% down. With 3% appreciation your house has appreciated 80% in 20 years. You&#x27;re earning 400% roi.<p>For the portfolio, if you&#x27;re averaging 8% you&#x27;re returning 466%. So the portfolio <i>still</i> wins, right? But no so fast: you don&#x27;t owe a dime of taxes on that $80k appreciation.<p>Anyway, your argument was beyond just ROI, but i&#x27;m interested if you have any thoughts about that?