Detroit, 2005: the decade the house lost
Housing regret sites love winners. Here is the other thing that happens.
Buy a Detroit house in 2005 and by 2015 the metro index said it was worth about 24% less. Ten years of payments, taxes, and a roof, and the asset went backwards. Renting won that decade, and not by a little.
Today the same 2005 purchase stands at 1.6× nominal — back above water, two decades later, before you count a dollar of the carrying costs. “Real estate always comes back” is doing a lot of work in that sentence.
This is why the calculator prints the rent line and the S&P line next to every house number. Sometimes the honest answer is that the house was the worst of the three.
Figures are index-derived estimates for the metro market — not an appraisal of any specific house. FHFA data; this site is neither endorsed nor certified by FHFA. Not financial advice.