Living in Fantasy

 At dinner last night at a friend's huge house, a product of the recent surge in home prices plus a tinge of  FOMO - fear of losing out.  Living in a large house has never appealed to me mainly because of the time spent in maintenance, large electrical bills, taxes, and whatnot. As an investment, it does not make sense too once you include expenses and taxes despite the low-interest-rate environment. The only way to earn money is if the prices keep rising at a significant pace. I am skeptical that the situation continues to happen though there are viewpoints on the eighter side; bubble territory vs. lack of supply versus increasing demand. I am on the side that the rising prices don't make sense and are driven by websites like Zillow and corporate entities buying houses; meaning an artificial event.

If large corporations are indeed buying these houses explain the run-up of prices, will rental income keep them in the game.? Zillow has already closed its home-buying business. Nevertheless, a large expensive house does make you feel successful, even if your lifestyle is funded by 401k, pushing the day of reckoning in the future; a tragedy that plays out every day in America. Mastering the borrowing game can sustain you for several years until it no longer does. To cope with this envy, one imagines his own house perhaps smaller but up in the mountains, with the splendor of mountain views. This is sometimes the only way to avoid the green-eyed monster is to live in your own fantasy world to combat the other fantasy world of pretension.