#home buying

Everyone's waiting for rate cuts to fix affordability. They won't. The Fed just penciled in more hikes than cuts for 2026, prices are at all-time highs, and the real problem is a 4-million-home hole that lower rates make worse, not better.

The honest answer is 'it depends, and the break-even is longer than realtors admit.' Here's the actual comparison: the multi-year hold you need, the opportunity cost of a down payment, and the phantom costs that never show up in the payment.

Your early mortgage payments are almost all interest, and almost none of it touches the balance. Here is how amortization, PITI, escrow, and extra payments actually work, with a real schedule.

Owning a home costs way more than the mortgage. Once you count maintenance, taxes, insurance, closing costs, and the opportunity cost of your down payment, renting stops looking like throwing money away. Here is the real math.