#1. Assuming you’re going to rent something similar to a house because you want a yard and garage, renting is just as expensive per month as buying, but without building equity, so #1 = fail. If you’re renting a 2 bedroom apartment in Buffalo vs buying a 4 bedroom house in Williamsville sure, there are money savings but lets compare apples to apples.
#2. I don’t know anyone making mortgage payments who doesn’t meet the standard deduction, so #2 = fail. Even before the wife and I had a kid we met the standard deduction once we bought a home.
#3. They greatly inflated their numbers. I paid nothing to my buyers agent when I bought my house. The seller paid 3% to sell it. Closing costs have already more than been paid for in appreciation, so #3 = fail.
#4. They’re using a tiny fraction of home sales for their calculation. Sure, if you look at just the people who bought overvalued homes during the boom, and look at their value today, it looks bad. The vast majority of homeowners don’t fall into this category though. Number 4 = fail.
#5. Just repeating #4. They couldn’t even come up with 5 unique myths when they were lieing. #5 = epic fail.