"Investment return rate" -- Only 4%? An index fund will return higher than that.
"Monthly common fees" -- Required if you are considering buying a condo. This changes the per month rent comparison dollar-for-dollar.
http://money.cnn.com/2014/05/21/investing/stock-returns-low-...
"The Shiller price to earnings ratio was designed by Nobel Prize winning economist Robert Shiller to give investors a sense of whether stocks are cheap or expensive. It compares stock prices, as measured by the S&P 500 index, with inflation-adjusted corporate earnings over the past 10 years.
"The magic number at the moment is 25. That's the current Shiller ratio, and it indicates that stocks are on the expensive side. The long-term average, going back more than 130 years, is 16.5.
"But the current level is significant for another reason. According to research by Credit Suisse, when the ratio has been between 25 and 26 in the past, stock returns over the next five years have been just 2.7%. That's after adjusting for inflation."
Just like homes will always go up?
I'm buying somewhere to hopefully live for the rest of my life. I have no idea what the current 'value' of my house is, nor will I be enquiring.
If it turns-out that the house eventually achieves negative equity, who cares? I'm still living in it and that would actually mean my property taxes decrease...
People still buy cars despite meteoric[0] devaluation.
[0] meteors plummet to the ground, you see