# You're Not a Failure If You Don't Own a Home.

1 Opinion August 4, 2026By Jennifer Carpenter

Real Clear Markets ![Jenny](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/2026-03/jennifer_carpenter_photo.jpg?itok=_bYmTqBM)The recently enacted 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act echoes the belief that homeownership is an important part of the American Dream, an idea that goes back to the 1950s. One foundation of this belief is the perception that homeownership promotes wealth accumulation for individual homeowners. We need to re-think this perception in the modern era.

Relative to renting, owning a home confers many benefits—status, control rights, access to properties that are not available on the rental market—but ending up with more money in your bank account isn't generally one of them. And it is a big responsibility. Control rights come with control obligations.

The first fallacy is that a house is a good financial investment. For example, my aunt bought her house in the Berkeley Hills for $276K in 1993. It is currently worth $1.8M, based on recent sale prices of comparable homes on our street. Sounds like a pretty good return over 33 years—5.8% per year. What would that $276K have grown to over that same 33 years from 1993 to 2026 if the money had been invested in the S&P 500? $8.4M. That is, 10.9% per year.

Read full [*Real Clear Markets* article](https://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2026/08/04/youre_not_a_failure_if_you_dont_own_a_home_1197802.html).
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*Jennifer Carpenter is Professor Emerita of Finance at NYU Stern.*

## More from Jennifer Carpenter

- [The Dual Role of China’s Stock Market: Capital Allocator and Platform for Global Diversification](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/experience-stern/faculty-research/dual-role-china-s-stock-market-capital-allocator-and-platform-global-diversification)
- [China’s Stock Market Crash and Beijing’s Worst Impulses](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/experience-stern/faculty-research/carpenter-whitelaw-china-stock-market-0)
- [What Can We Learn From the Chinese Stock Market Crash?](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/experience-stern/faculty-research/what-can-we-learn-chinese-stock-market-crash)
- [Hands Off China's Stock Market](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/experience-stern/faculty-research/carpenter-whitelaw-china-stock-market)
- [China's stock market is not in a bubble](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/experience-stern/faculty-research/chinas-stock-market-is-not-in-a-bubble)