This. A smart buyer can leverage up $1m at 3.7% interest, 0.7% real interest after accounting for inflation, even less accounting for the tax efficiency. Cheap money to be able to realize the appreciation of an asset that you simultaneously get to enjoy every day, and that gives your family a feeling of serenity.<p>Headline BLS inflation figures aren&#x27;t very representative of reality. Bottom line is that if you pick the underlying asset smartly, owning a house is leverage, and leverage increases financial returns. The historical high quality of real property as an asset could change -- a lot of people in my generation think it has. But I suspect it has not.