Capital gains tax after election (out of main)

[Hans5555]

5% downpayment makes no sense today. There is mortgage insurance for low downpayment because houses are not going up in value as fast as before and it is risky investment. I have 3 properties in NYC and no way rent would cover expenses with just 5% downpayment.
Most likely downpayment will be at 20%-40% just to break even with rent so returns are worse than originally thought!

With more realistic 20% downpayment, annual return matches S&P 500 return at 7%.

 

[Hans5555]

I think this is beauty of markets. If real estate better than average stock market no one would be buying stocks. There is a balance between real estate and the stock market investing so average return stays roughly the same.
The thing with stock market is that there are few people who can make far more than in anything else. These people will continue to be in stock market even after slight tax increase.