Why I Sold My House and Rented Again

I sold the apartment last summer and went back to renting. People keep asking me why. The financial answer is simple. The personal answer is what is actually interesting.

The Financial Answer

I ran the numbers honestly. After eight years of ownership in Madrid, including all maintenance, taxes, the mortgage interest paid, and the foregone returns from investing my down payment in index funds, my total return on the apartment was about 4% per year. Renting plus investing the difference would have been roughly the same, with no maintenance headaches and no concentrated bet on one neighborhood.

Real estate is not the slam-dunk return most people assume. It is fine. It is not magic. It is not even consistently better than equities over long horizons.

The Personal Answer

Owning a home tied me to a city in a way I had not noticed. The decision to move neighborhoods or countries became a six-month logistical project instead of a 30-day one. I underweighted the cost of optionality.

The home was beautiful. I miss it sometimes. I do not miss owning it.