However, I would add nuance that using the word “investment” as synonymous with price appreciation is only partly true because any investment’s value comes from capital gains or dividends. And I dispute his claim that if buying is a good investment, then prices need to increase faster than inflation (although expected rent growth due to supply restrictions may be priced in in the example of Littleton, CO). A house can be both affordable to all generations and a good investment, just as a laptop or a pickup truck or any capital good can be both broadly available and a good investment. You buy a car instead of leasing it because it is a good investment even though it depreciates and even though there is a healthy market of auto leases. Kevin Erdmann has a clear-eyed series on the role of landlords even in a healthy housing market, which is much like the role of lessors of any capital good https://www.mercatus.org/economic-insights/expert-commentary...
The key variable that he is forgetting in the nytimes rent calculator is rent inflation. In almost any market, there will be rental investors, and that’s a good thing; otherwise you would not be able to rent a house. What really matters for the long-term health of the country is making sure that rents don’t increase (YIMBYism) and turning inevitable central city rents into public goods (Georgism).