“Do NOT Buy A House!” (Warren Buffett’s Final Warning)
Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code GRAHAM at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: – Let's talk about Warren Buffett and why he doesn't invest in real estate – Enjoy! Add me on Instagram: GPStephan
PROMOTIONAL OFFER: Get Up To 12 FREE STOCKS when you sign up and make a deposit using my paid affiliate link for WeBull:
GET MY WEEKLY EMAIL MARKET RECAP NEWSLETTER:
WHY WARREN BUFFETT DOESN'T INVEST IN REAL ESTATE:
1. It’s more difficult to make money with Real Estate than in the Stock Market.
Median home prices have increased an average of 4.3%, during a century when inflation averaged 3%. This means, if you just bought a random house – and did nothing but hold on to it – you would be earning just 1.3%, per year, above inflation. This does not include rental income, which could boost returns by an additional 2-6%+ per year. On top of that, you could also leverage your money – but this heavily depends on interest rates.
However, most people never take into account the time it takes to search for – and negotiate – the right home, the cost of inspections and closing costs, the effort of management, the coordination of ongoing repairs, etc. The Stock Market has increased an average of 9.8%, with dividends reinvested – with just the click of a button.
2. When Real Estate Drops, Stocks Fall Even More.
With the exception of 2 major real estate drops in 1929 and 2008 – for the most part, home prices have been fairly resilient, with very few ‘groundbreaking’ buying opportunities. This suggests that stocks have a lot more volatility, and it's unlikely you'll find a no-brainer buying opportunity throughout the entire housing sector.
3. When buying real estate, you're dealing with a single seller – and everything becomes negotiable.
The fact is: Real estate is not as liquid as stocks are; if you want to buy, or sell, it takes a SIGNIFICANT amount of time and effort. It’s a long, drawn-out, time-consuming endeavor, that doesn’t really become scalable – unless you’re dealing with apartment buildings or an entire portfolio.
On the other hand, if I want to sell stocks – it’s done in less than a minute, from anywhere in the world. You don’t have to wait for a buyer, you don’t have to negotiate, you don’t have to wonder if the deal is going to close; if the price is right, it’s just instantly finished.
The Reality:
99.99% of people can’t successfully get the returns that Warren Buffett does. For everyday investors, it's possible to make a significant amount of money in real estate, IF they know what they’re doing, IF they’re buying for an investment, and IF they’re prepared to put in the time and effort to run it successfully. Yes, it's significantly more work than stocks – but, your returns can also be higher under the right circumstances.
My ENTIRE Camera and Recording Equipment:
For business inquiries, you can reach me at grahamstephanbusiness@gmail.com
*Some of the links and other products that appear on this video are from companies which Graham Stephan will earn an affiliate commission or referral bonus. Graham Stephan is part of an affiliate network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites. The content in this video is accurate as of the posting date. Some of the offers mentioned may no longer be available. This is not investment advice.
-Here is a link containing the source material for each piece of research cited. I do my best to make my videos as accurate as I can, and the additional resources should help anyone who wants to look into them further – enjoy! https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zmKxEOkbpyF1C6ToO2DUK_pXqLQgVLcquubfRP6gaYU/edit?usp=sharing
-Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code GRAHAM at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: https://incogni.com/graham
I can’t believe you’re still making money off this nonsense. There is no shortage of housing, scumbag Internet, grifter.
Great C0ntent Capt’N
Tell me why it doesn’t make sense to get options on leveraged etfs like tqqq and go out 2 years
Richard Wolff just gave an excellent talk over at ‘Democracy At Work’ titled ‘Global Capitalism: On This May Day’ that covers a lot of Trump’s ‘progress’ up to this point from an economic standpoint! 🙂👍
Steve,
This video seemed like you were advocating for not buying a house period. Did I hear it wrong, or was the opinion only about it being a bad investment opportunity?
Or…. are you suggesting that people should rent for the rest of their lives?
I watch you often, and just only realized I wasn’t subscribed. Some of us(me) dont have a huge income and would be considered small potatoes on the investment end. Bad credit/decisions from youth, and trying to catch up now with much difficulty.
I’m a huge fan, but I feel like in the 80s/90s, landlords only charged 75% of the note for the house(knowing they would be left with an asset in 20yr), but now they want renters to completely cover the note.
I guess it gets weird when ppl with many rental properties suggest not purchasing. I just want my share of the American Dream, and not as an investment prop. But, it’s
Seeing this title after just buying a house 🤨
as a primary residence, long term, it’ll likely be a good choice!
a free ride when you’ve already paid 😂
Regret …
But what if you need a place to live?
Same
Having a home to call your own and having a portfolio of houses are two different things.
Like Graham says, don’t let Buffet freak you out. If having a place to call your own matters to you and it fits within your budget, do it. Not everything in life is about returns.
Great point that people too often forget. There is potentially tremendous benefits of actually living in a house that you love that is not easily quantifiable—that counts too. (Of course, you still need to make sure you can afford it.)
Not only the home is not yours for 30 years but if you don’t pay your property taxes even on a paid home… Guess what will happen
Also.
His argument is that it’s hard to be an expert. And work to buy and maintain.
But last time I looked, was also hard to be an expert to know what to buy in stocks.
exactly. I am not investing. I want a nice place to live and lock in my biggest personal monthly expense.
Everything should be about returns. If it don’t make dollas, it don’t make sense.
Do not buy a house as an investment, buy it for residence purposes
Even then…unless you plan to be in there 7+ years, chances are…renting is cheaper
@@GrahamStephanrent goes up 8.9% in california, common ppl lose in stocks
@@GrahamStephan How? In Vegas everytime you go to renew your lease its crazy expensive it seems. When you have a locked in home price it has cost me way less. How do you calculate that, I am just wondering where your numbers come from. Thanks
@@reesereese6510 Maybe depends on the State where you’re in?
@@reesereese6510 location matters but it’s usually cheaper because you don’t have to pay for major repairs, like a new roof, HVAC, plumbing etc (unless your negligence damaged the items, ex HVAC filter)
“It is more profitable to sell advice, than it is to take it”.
I hope he’s right because housing really needs to stop being an investment, and it should go back to being shelter.
@@cozmo4694 and you should vote for politicians that will reduce regulations, red tape to increase supply of housing.
Makes sense, you are selling vs taking or buying it.😝
housing is just a more expensive car. Both need a certain skillset to maintain and turn over for a profit
Best time to buy a house is 30 years ago.
Yup bought my house last year paying more than I was renting now and I have to spend thousands fixing everything housing is a stupid purchase in this new world
Too bad I wasn’t alive 30 years ago
Was too busy being born :/
Next best time is today
@@kylehackett162 I could have sworn next best time was 5 years ago
i hope houses are stopped being seen or perceived as an investment. i hope it’s seen as a necessitiy so more people can afford and not let it be overpriced
I highly doubt it. It’s been ingrained into the culture.
If that were to happen people would start dumping real estate and stocks would surge. Would that make property taxes go down when home prices plummet? Nope!😅 It would also crush a lot of people dreams. A lot of people net worth is tied up in their house.
My investments (boring, fixed income) pay my rent, sure it’s sucks not to have a backyard, but I’ve been able to travel debt free around the world
I like your idea 🙂
I bought raw land in 1996 and fell in love with my new ” home and garden” .
My home provides security for me (early retiree w/a part-tine small business) and there’s nothing like owning my home !
It’s a security to own real estate but my huge experience with it, the full main important value,
is in that its my Home (shelter) and Garden (food) .
I’ve bought other real estate since 1996, and the value of it all is that it can provide homes and gardens.
It’s Active not Passive investments 🙂
When it’s illegal for companies to buy them up for rental property
It’s almost like we should stop treating housing as an investment/retirement fund.
As an investment, houses should not be treated any differently than anything else.
Greed
@@MCJSAhouses have maintenance cost insurance and property tax so definitely it’s different.
@@Devinchi_Art True. That’s what Buffet was saying. As an investor, you look at cost to reward. This is what I meant. Real estate, as a class, is not “better” than any other class, just different. Graham is saying the same thing. When credit was cheap and housing prices were soaring in CA, that was a good deal, especially for a 20 something with nothing else to do but build a real estate portfolio. Not so much now, not even for footloose 20 somethings.
@@LeroyPinckney-m5w Hows life living homeless?
Need to stop companies buying houses
yes yes yes yes
Yeah, only people we like or agree with should be able to buy homes! Let’s get rid of freedom!
They will be caught holding the bag when things go bad don’t think they’ll have the power forever
Yup!
Why?
Don’t buy homes so he can buy homes in bulk and rent them out to you lol
…uh oh
Pretty sure that’s what most of his companies do.
gotta love warren now against property investing when he own so much of it still. Hes playing you
He sold his real estate company tmk
doesnt take a genuis to look at the math. Even AI like chatgpt will prove you wrong that stocks give a better ROI lmao
I’m tired of houses being seen as just an investment, every single Zillow listing I go to mentions something about an investment and instead of saying home buyer, they say investor. I just wanna buy a place I can live on.
Limit companies buying residential homes.
so you want even more statism.
Great.
There should me extreme limitation on any companies owning homes
@@mjs28s Yes.
@@mjs28sdo you really think its a good idea to let companies own the majority of homes in America??? You cant be that delusional lol
They dont even buy/own .1% of single family home
Red herring of building regulation being too strenuous and lack of construction workers.
I got a divorce and the house sold this year. I put my cash into a robinhood gold account and rented. The interest on my cash in my account paid for half my rent if I wouldn’t have reinvested. I bought tons of index funds at the dip a couple days after Trump announced the tarriffs. I’m up about 20 percent in the past month alone. I have no debt and won’t buy a house because it’s not a good investment atm.
Keep it up man
I think I have to give a shot.
Good for you! Im investing aa well. 🙂 lots of AI, energy, and bitcoin stocks and ETFs
I rented cheap AND invested for the past 15 years after my divorce. Made some incredible gains that I finally decided to buy a house and have enough cash available to buy several houses. Keep doing what you are doing!
cheers to turning a bad situation into your true earned success!!!! amazing man!!!!
stop corporations from buying single-family homes
We all know and we all know it’s never gonna happen
During the 80s and 90s Corporations did not buy single family homes. For whatever reason since 08 crash they bought all the homes
This won’t do much for the most popular parts of the country where most people don’t live in SFHs. DC, NYC, Boston, Dallas, Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta, all have the majority of housing units as non SFHs.
We need to build more housing. Investment firms have literally cited housing “supply constraints” as the reason they are able to charge so much.
I was hoping Trump might pass legislation.
But I dont think so Trump is a real estate mogul.
I think RFK Jr. could be the next President and RFK Jr. has spoken about this before.
the only reason they buy them is so they can rent them out to people. If people stop renting from them and buy their own houses, the corporations will have no reason to. If you’re going to respond by saying that you can’t afford to buy a home, then the more rental properties there are on the market, the more competitive rent is, so it’s better for corporations to buy them along with private people and then each renter select the house that most suits them.
This is just a way for rich people to deter you from buying houses so they can get them without the competition
He did lay down facts though. I selling most of my property and buying into stocks. he wrong about 2 things though. You can borrow from your stocks like. Just like a house. You can also collect Rents which are called Dividens. It all about 20% less. But you do not have to spend in huge Taxes, Fees, Permits, Cost in upkeep etc.. so it balances out. Government just to into your home and have way to much power now. We really need to cut government by 2/3rds and bring Power Back to the People! Anyhow if what you say is true. you have a less competition for yourself to buy up realestate.
It’s not an investment but just a place to grow old with your family. Not everything is about money but the world is come to this place
One of the most overlooked yet significant drivers of the housing crisis is the growing dominance of investors in the real estate market. Today, investors not traditional homebuyers account for over a quarter of new home purchases. This shift has profound implications. Even if Baby Boomers begin to downsize or if more inventory becomes available, the fundamental issues won’t go away. Why? Because well capitalized investors continue to buy up properties, pushing prices higher and pricing everyday families out of the market. It’s a basic supply and demand imbalance but one distorted by wealth concentration and long-term investment strategies.
Another underreported aspect is the growing role of major financial institutions. Since the 2008 financial crisis, banks, hedge funds, private equity firms, and asset managers like BlackRock have entered the housing space not to provide homes, but to generate returns. This transformation from housing as a basic human need to housing as an asset class has reshaped the market landscape. At the same time, developers are chasing higher margins by building luxury properties, leaving affordable housing in short supply. This dynamic continues to squeeze working- and middle-class families who can’t compete with institutional buyers or afford upscale developments.
Even if home prices eventually fall, we may need a deep correction possibly 40–50% for the market to truly reset. But in the meantime, the combination of high mortgage rates, a potential recession, and tighter lending standards makes buying a home riskier than ever. Many are now questioning whether real estate remains the cornerstone of personal wealth-building. With all this volatility, alternative investments such as diversified portfolios or commodities like gold are gaining traction. A good financial advisor can help navigate these uncertain waters.
This is a critical moment in the housing crisis—one that calls for informed public policy, investor accountability, and long-term planning. Without smart, decisive action, we risk sliding into a deeper and more prolonged affordability crisis—one that affects not just the housing sector, but also employment, education, and family stability.
On a personal note, a recent read completely changed how I think about long-term investing in a turbulent economy: The Philosophy of Smart Investing by Jennafer Turner. It reframed how I approach risk, opportunity, and strategy—especially as real estate becomes increasingly volatile.
Came across this book a few months ago, and it honestly shifted how I look at my portfolio. With everything happening in the housing market, it gave me a fresh perspective and helped me adjust my strategy. Glad I found it when I did
I believe the retirement crisis will get even worse. Many struggle to save due to low wages, rising prices, and exorbitant rents. With homeownership becoming unattainable for middle-class Americans, they may not have a home to rely on for retirement either.
Government policy has thrown the future under the bus for decades. The day of judgment is near. I predict an 80% drop in the stock market. Investors will abandon stocks in favor of real estate. There will be no money in banks… You must devise a strategy for survival.
Very true! I’ve been able to scale from $350K to $650K this red season because my FA figured out Defensive strategies to protect my portfolio and profit from this roller coaster market.
I’m intrigued by this. I’ve searched for financial advisors online but it’s kind of hard to get in touch with one. Okay if I ask you for a recommendation?
Credits to Lynn Marie Konsela ,she has a web presence, so you can simply just search for her.
Warren Buffet has lived in the same house for 67 years and drives an 11 year old car. Many people have bigger houses and bigger SUVs then wonder why they are broke.
I’m planning to retire at 59 in another country outside the US that is free, safe and very cheap with a high quality of life and good healthcare. Greed has eaten up those in our economic sectors making lives of the average Americans difficult. Mr. president seems to be myopic about how to better the country and seemingly peaks interest in war topics. Taxes are heavy on the middle class while the billionaires evade this taxes. some are even given tax cuts. I could fully just rely on only my SS if I wanted to when that times arrives but l’ll also have at least one pension, a 403 (b) and a very prolific Investment account with my KarenBayfield my FA. Retiring comfortably in the US these days is almost impossible
KarenBayfield deserves more accolades, I’m so impressed knowing how much people talk good about her expertise… she also helped me and my friends here in the UK 🇬🇧 to trade profitably with her daily signals.
She primarily interacts via Telegrams with her name.
Thank you. I have searched her up on the Telegram , I think I am satisfied with her experience.
Yeah, I agree with you. KarenBayfield has always been on the top of my list..more folks like her are needed in the digital investment scene, mate.
There is an opportunity for newbies and some old holder to capitalise on, It’s quite a shame people can’t see this, trading is everything right now.
They’re talking about investing in real estate, not buying a home.