Robert Shiller, an economist at Yale, won a Nobel Prize in 2013 for his analysis of asset prices, and his name is half of the much-watched Case-Shiller Index of housing prices. It turns out, he's not too enthusiastic about home ownership, either as a lifestyle choice or an investment. Buying a house is "like a consumption choice, it's not really an investment," he tells Money magazine's Susie Poppick in the video below.
Renting, especially if you don't have a steady job or don't plan to be in the same place for 10 years, "is just going to make your life easier," he said. There are some instances in which buying makes sense, but home ownership is like parenthood, he added:
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