Billionaire: Buying a house still best investment

Billionaire money manager John Paulson believes buying a home to live in is the best investment possible.

“I still think, from an individual perspective, the best deal investment you can make is to buy a primary residence that you’re the owner-occupier of,” Paulson said Wednesday at the Delivering Alpha conference presented by CNBC and Institutional Investor.

“Today financing costs are extraordinarily low. You can get a 30-year mortgage somewhere around 4.5 percent. And if you put down, let’s say, 10 percent and the house is up 5 percent, which is the latest data, then you would be up 50 percent on your investment,” hedge fund manager Paulson explained. “And you’ve locked in the cost over the next 30 years. And today the cost of owning is somewhat less than the cost of renting. And if you rent, the rent goes up every year. But if you buy a 30-year mortgage, the cost is fixed.”

The Paulson & Co. founder made a similar call at Delivering Alpha in 2013.

“The housing market has bottomed,” he said. “It’s not too late to get involved. I still think buying a home is the best investment any individual can make. Affordability is still at an all-time high,” he said last year.

Paulson did nuance his recommendation this year, saying that his thesis is for homes that the owners live in—not a rental.

“To buy it as an investment and rent it out, I’m not so enamored with that concept,” he said.

Read full article at www.cnbc.com

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