I studied some history of appraisal. Back before WWII, real estate was depreciated. The comparative sales approach to appraisal did not take hold until prices started consistently increasing.
I think that in Germany it is cheaper to own. It’s perfectly acceptable to rent over there.
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I love history as well. But sometimes history is not that relevant. Back the old ages was the golden time to be a landlord, you can literally dictate everything (including rents) and put the tenants into extreme misery (perhaps they were even your servants)…we couldn’t do that anymore. Also the reason “back before WWII, real estate was depreciated” is that the mass home production was introduced only at the turn of last century…and it makes housing a truly commodity market.
The buy v.s. rent is applicable now because the housing market is a commodity market already … there is no turning back. But it could go extreme. Imagine one day that a robot can just build a house in a day with soil as the basic material and with the sun as the energy source of the production. How much would the house price be when you can live in such a cave, I mean, nice house? No one would rent anymore just like no one rent time on personal computers now even though they are much much more powerful than the main-frame back then. The only renters at that time would rent the historical housing units such as the White House for a weekend.
