Is Homeownership Still Worth It? + Why Work-Life Balance Is a Myth

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That's Odil.com. Welcome to Office hours with PropG. This is the part of the show where we answer questions about business, Pictac Entrepreneurship and whatever else is on your mind.

“In case you missed it, office hours is now airing on Mondays and Wednesdays”

and the PropG pop feed. You'll get double the dog, double the inside. Anyways, if you'd like to submit a question for next time, you can send a voice recording to office hours of PropGmedia.com. Again, that's office hours of PropGmedia.com.

Or, post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit, and we just might feature it in our next episode.

Our first question comes from Reddit,

user snapcrackle pirate, and asks, "Hi Scott, I live in one of the most expensive areas in California. Both my husband and I were born here with two sets of grandparents in a young child leaving isn't really an option. It's a bit surreal to be renting at 35, but here we are.

The twist in our situation will likely inherit two homes in this area down the line. So my question is, how should we think about renting versus buying in the context of a future inheritance? Is it more rational to buy anyway to start building equity

despite the higher monthly cost or keep renting and best the downpayment in the market and effectively wait for eventual home ownership through inheritance? Put differently. Is chasing home ownership in a high-cost market

to less-mark financial move? Or just a legacy belief, our generation hasn't let go of yet." Huh. I just wouldn't plan your life around and expected inheritance. I would assume you're not going to inherit something

and try and shape your decisions and ambitions around that, because unfortunately, death is personality, and you don't know when you're going to inherit stuff. So first off, when they done studies on homeownership as an asset class, it has not outperformed and sometimes on many measures

has underperformed other asset classes.

“But why is it generally speaking a good idea to buy a home in general?”

It's generally speaking a good idea. Why? Because it's for savings. People will, people will cancel their Netflix or their cellostock if they get in trouble or need the money.

People will very rarely miss their mortgage payment and get affected from their home. So it's forced savings, forced as you be a bit more responsible. And also the earnings or the appreciation and the capital appreciation at home grows tax deferred until you sell it, at which point

I would suggest, depending if it's not your prime residence, you take advantage of $500,000 tax tax reduction for two people, if it's just real estate footage and then I'll see and then you can do a 10/31 exchange. Anyways, I think it will tax those a lot.

So is it, the reality is buying versus renting is situational.

Generally speaking, in the Bay Area and in New York, it is much better to rent. The statewide income needed to qualify for a mid-tier mortgage is grown much faster than median household income. Only about 23% of California households

likely qualify for a mid-tier home mortgage a day down from 31% on 2019. So look, I've done really well on homes, but it seems like home prices in the Bay Area at three and a half times monthly rent for a comparable two-pedium home

are pretty elevated. So your situation at mortgage payment two times rent is actually conservative by California's most expensive standards. And California statewide price rent ratio is approximately 33.2

That signals renting is financially superior choice on a monthly cost basis. See above it's probably better to rent in the Bay Area. A ratio of 15 favors buying, a ratio above 20 favors renting, there's an interesting study on buying versus renting.

A 2026 tenure rent versus buy wealth study, modeled 250 U.S. cities using Zilla home values and a 10.35% S&P benchmark return. Home ownership came out ahead in 250 cities when assuming a rent only invested the down payment.

But when assuming the rents are invested, both the down payment and the monthly savings from cheaper rent, buying buying one in fewer cities.

“And this has been after and I think this data is a little fucked up,”

because I think this probably after an unprecedented run up in housing prices due to regulation from incumbents making harder to build and cove it. Case shiller or I think it's name is a shiller.

Anyways, basically it's done a lot of research here saying

that as an asset class, it's the same or less and most instances. Anyways, an important advice for your situation. Check the inheritance tax math. California's prop 13 caps property taxes around 1% of the original purchase price, so a home bought for 200,000 decades ago.

I don't only carry 2,000 a year tax bill, even if it's not worth 2 million. But under prop 19, past in 2021, airs only get to keep that low rate if they move into the inherited home as their primary residents within a year. Otherwise, the county resets the tax to current market value, potentially five to ten times, increases oversight.

So in other words, if and when you inherit the sum, think hard about moving in within 12 months to maintain that advantageous tax status. So what you look at is yields.

And basically, if a home costs a million dollars and you can generate $50,000 in rental income,

that's a 5% yield. The yields in places like San Francisco and New York are very low, meaning it's a better deal to rent than to buy. If you were in Nashville or Lubbock, Texas, I would err on the side of saying no, buy.

“So don't feel as if you need to buy to be owed an adult.”

Sometimes renting is the way to go chasing home ownership for some sort of psychological benefit when it doesn't make any sense is not a great idea. I would argue that I don't know when home prices are like in the barribe, but I'm asking someone I'm afraid of giving the AI boom. So I don't know, look, unless you're going to get a ton of psychic reward from buying right now,

I would probably say hold off and also don't feel ashamed to rent versus own. But I would plan your life assuming those people don't ever pass away. Anyways, again, another good problem. Thanks for the question. Question number two.

Hi, Scott. This is Adam from Queensland Australia. I wanted to ask about your idea of men adding surplus value, especially as far as trying to be better dads than their own. For context, I'm traditionally a high school fizzed and science teacher.

But a few years ago, we started breeding edible insects and running education programs in schools to teach kids about sustainability, food systems, and STEM in a more engaging way than we felt we could in our traditional roles. So we didn't have to take on debt for that start-up. We've been selling repurposed wine barrels as bar tables, ice bars, and hot tubs.

And this has become its own great business, and I'm super proud of the work that we do. My dilemma is this.

“I think we get paid really well as teachers in my state anyway,”

although that doesn't make me popular with other teachers. But right now, I'm earning less, I'm working way harder, and I'm not around my family as much as I would be if I was just in the classroom.

But I've never been so motivated and driven in my work and when I am home,

I feel I'm more present and engaged as a dad, and feel like I'm chasing something bigger for my family. My dad certainly wasn't absent, but he did work a lot, and he also provided really well for us financially, and I'm kind of stuck in between, a more present that the financial side is still a bit of a gamble. As someone who's been open about how hard they worked, how would you look at my situation, and think about adding surplus value to your family when there's a trade-off between,

being present and engaging in finances? Lots of love to you in the team mate. You guys were my top pod of 2025, and I wish I was as cool as Ed Elson. Cheers. Thanks to Adam from Queensland.

If Australia wasn't so far, we'd all live there. I'd go, I'd try to go there every couple of years and every time I go down there, I think these are my people. I think it's struggling with what a lot of men struggle with and that is balancing being a good dad, a good partner, a good neighbor in trying to be a good provider, and the sacrifice that takes in an increasingly competitive society, and not only that, the self-esteem or the lack of self-esteem,

that comes along with being more economically viable or less, which men are disproportionately

So, the comment or the conventional narrative out there right now is sacrifice economic upside, to spend more time with your kids, and I don't buy it. I was a bit of a work of a hollock. I could have sacrificed some time. I get all of my identity, unfortunately, at least until recently, from my professional success

to lack thereof, and also not growing up with money, which is so important to me, that I was willing to just work all the time. And at one point, I probably went five or 10 years too long working that hard, and it came

at a cost. I always say, it cost me my hair, it cost me my first marriage, and it was worth it.

Now, what do I mean by that? I think in a capitalist society, and what sounds like maybe at the primary breadwinner, I think you have an obligation to your family and to yourself to develop some economic security. And the trajectory you set for yourself professionally

“in your 30s and 40s, really, or 20s, 30s and 40s, is just so important. I think of it similar”

to a launch, and that is a projectile, or a rocket, or Artemis, or Saturn, or the Falcon Heavy rocket, expectorates 97% of its fuel just getting out of the soupy low orbit, but then that speed can take it tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of miles, based on a trajectory in its speed when it gets into space, I don't know, it's no fuel. So you want to

burn a lot of fuel, my brother, in your 30s and 40s, and really establish a nice professional

and financial trajectory that will give you momentum into your 40s, 50s, and 60s. And unless you're smart enough to be born to rich parents, there's no balance, there's just trade-offs. And the trade-off I took was to have less time with my family early, such that I would have more time as they got older. I have a crazy amount of balance right now. I'm going to kick off in a couple of hours and go to self-register and have dim sum with my kid. My oldest told me he likes,

in part of the sun, I'm going to try and get his tickets when they're here in London. You know, I can take a car out to his boarding school in Wednesday night and hang out with him. I can do a college tour with him, and I'm already planning he's going to UVA, I'm already planning to go to the UVA Berkeley game and bring a bunch of friends with me. I just have just have so

“much wonderful balance and time with loved ones right now, but it came at a price. I remember coming home”

when I'd been on the road for two or three weeks, meeting with clients all over the world. I mean literally all over the world. My biggest clients were out in Samsung, do the math, in terms of geography there, and just being really bummed out, because the first thing I would do, I would go into the room at night and just looking on them sleeping, and I would notice they had physically grown. And then since the last time I saw them several weeks earlier, they were bigger.

And we really bummed me out and I thought, am I doing not get it? And I look back on it,

and the reality is I'm glad I made the sacrifice because,

and this isn't the way the world should be, but the way the world is, their health care, their ability, your ability to get them great education, your ability to help them out if they don't get a, you know, come out of the gates right out of school, your ability to do nice things, given how long you're probably going to live. I don't know. Just my advice is always establish economic trajectory. Do what you can to be with your kids,

and your partner. Obviously prioritize certain moments, certain events that you got to be at. I'm flying back. I go to every auto-to-camera, I'm flying back a few days early to go to my kids, what's it called? Speech Day, which is awful I've been before, and I'm not sure that means that much to them, but it just feels like I should be there for that anyway. There's some virtually certainly right now.

I think every TikTok and all your friends are going to be generous with your money and decide you should spend more time with your family and your kids. And what I have found is that the sacrifice is early on in the trajectory, it established for me, has given me a great deal of balance

“later in life. And the balance later in life is really important because one, I didn't have the”

mojo, I don't have the mojo in the energy you have to really go out it. And so if I found myself now in a position where I was a bit financially anxious, it would put huge train on my relationship with my partner and my kids. So in some, it sounds to me like you have great judgment and you're doing the right thing. It's a very personal decision. You have to get alignment with your partner. Some people decide they don't want to do what I do. I'm not saying my way is the right way. It's

just my way and they want to move to a lower cost area, Coach Little League, and prioritize family and church and not money. God love them and they're very happy. That was not how I wanted to be.

shit ton of money, which means a lot of sacrifice early on. A very personal decision, I think the world who doesn't need to pay your mortgage will advise you or have a bias telling you to spend more time with your family and sacrifice professional relationships. I don't think that's necessarily the default. Get alignment with your partner and also the sacrifice trajectory you establish now are really important for later in life. But again, he's a very personal decision. I don't think

“there's a right way I think there's just your way. Very much appreciate the question.”

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at O-Dill.com. That's O-D-O-O.com. Welcome back. Question number three comes for a listener who emailed us. Hey Scott has spent 27 years building and running a manufacturing company burned out years before the sale but kept going on pure stubbornness. Now it's three years post-closed. I'm financially fine. Still a part of it on our just enough involvement to be able to feel connected but not enough

to feel the heat and I have absolutely no idea what to do with myself. To be clear, I'm not depressed.

I don't miss the status or the importance. I generally love not grinding every day. The problem is

I can't seem to get motivated by anything that's supposed to come next. Not my other business. Not my other businesses. Not the volunteer work. I plan for years nothing. I have major ADD and I'm a serial entrepreneur which means sitting still isn't in my genes. So what's the actual recovery arc? Look, like for founders post-exit. Is there one? For context, full retirement is not an option. I know myself. If I go beach bum, I love to surf. I will go all the way

beach bum and I need an on-ramp back to purpose, not an x-ramp into oblivion. Any thoughts would be appreciated. That's a tough one. Look, I don't. The problem is you probably have exactly the wrong

foundation and save the whales or cheer malaria in Africa. But you don't have, but you have enough

“money such that you don't have to do anything. You don't have to take a job. I have a lot of friends who”

retired with a decent amount of money, but not enough money to really go large and give away money and do really crazy cool things. But enough money such that any offer that came their way wasn't quite good enough. And I'll give you my, you and I have sort of a similar arc. In 1999, I was, you know, 30, 34. And my company Red envelope had filed a go public. I was about to sell my

ranch strategy from profit for about 33 million. So I thought I'm done. I think my stake in Red

envelope supposedly at the IP was going to be worth 30 or 60 million plus the, anyways, I thought I'm done. Back then, having 20 or 30 million was more than enough, at least I thought, you know, I'm someone who like didn't want to tell my mom about lost in jacket because they got 30 bucks growing up. But anyway, I thought I was done. So I left New York, joined the faculty at NYU,

“thought, that's my passion. That's what I want to do. And then, Chicago Real in 2000 with”

Internet companies and all of a sudden, I was broke. And I sort of wandered the earth from 2000 to

2000. They trying to find something to do. I did some activist investing with hedge funds. I taught,

but I didn't go all in on teaching. And then I found, you know, I was just sort of roaming. I was just sort of lost, sort of just, I don't know, floundering for lack of a better term. But I tried new stuff, tried to do different things, tried to be very social, meet people, trying to get deals going. And ended up, I thought, okay, I like teaching. I think I can make a decent living at it. And I went all in on teaching, which was different than investment banking or startups,

and built an ended up doing a research project on luxury brands and digital IQs,

started the digital IQ index and turned into a business. In other words, just get really engaged in

something, and try some things, find something that's not, don't let perfect the enemy a good, find something you think you're good at, and then you don't hate and go all in it. Go all in on it for two or three years and see if it works. And if it doesn't, you know, pull back and do something else.

“But the key is just getting on with something. Like the time to start is now because”

if you're not careful, you can wake up time goes fast and you wake up a lot of my friends book and up in like 16 like I got to get really serious about the next thing. And they like sold their company or cashed out or got fired from wherever it is, Goldman Sachs at 45 and they really haven't done a hell of a lot of 15 years. So find friends, meet with a lot of people, find at what deals they're working on, what they're doing, find co-founders or co-partners to do stuff

within, tell people you're available, looking at projects, don't be afraid to volunteer your time to help other people get shit going and see if there's a role there for you. In some be really social and lower your bar, something doesn't have to be an eight or nine for you to get involved, make it six or seven or seven or eight and see if it turns into, you know, an eight or a nine. That's all for this episode. If you'd like to submit a question,

please email a voice recording to office hours, or prop to meet at calm. Again, that's office hours, or prop to meet at calm or if you'd prefer to ask on Reddit, just post your question on the Scott Gallery subreddit, and we just might feature it and then upcoming episode. This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez and Laura Janair. Can we request our social producer, Brad Williams, as our editor, and Drew Burroughs,

our technical director. Thank you for listening to the Propheep Pop from Propheep Media.