Comment by Kirby64

Anyone buying a house with a mortgage generally is taking a 5:1 leverage (a 5% down loan is 20:1 leverage) position on the house. Making $100k on a $200k investment, with 5:1 leverage means making 100k on a 40k investment, which isn't a 50% return... it's a 250% return. And it's tax free, assuming it's your primary residence (up to 250k cap gains). You have to spend an obnoxious amount on costs to not have it make sense.