...and you thought Tysons had traffic now.

[Steve85]

I was responding to a blog in one of mikes links and can't seem to find it now. It came up as the first entry last night comparing rent to buying. I quoted the wrong article in my first post. The article I am referring to the author finds a 425K house for 1500 rent. A typical mortgage for that house would run 2600. He compared the return on appreciation of the house for a buyer to the renter investing the difference in stocks.

by "buyer" i meant renter, since they are buying a service.
ie- the landlord doesnt set the price, the renter does.

The landlord will always charge as much as the market will bear. In most cases, a landlord cannot charge in rent what the house monthly payment would be. if he does, the property sits unrented.

So, I agree with what you're saying and I will quit commenting on an article I can't find at the moment...

My point was, as you said, real estate, a home purchase is not investment driven for most.