Saylor Warns Against Buying Houses Citing High Property Taxes

Billionaire Michael Saylor has been urging people to buy Bitcoin for years. In a recent interview, he added another piece of advice: avoid buying a house. According to Saylor, owning a home is not a good store of value because it comes with a massive tax load and maintenance costs.

He specifically mentioned that in Florida, where property taxes are around 0.7% to 0.9% of the market value, homeowners pay about $2,000 per year for every $250,000 of their home's value. Over time, this adds up: at a flat 2% levied on a flat value, cumulative property tax equals the purchase price in 50 years, not 36, as Saylor claimed.

However, his thesis is directionally fine, especially considering that if your house appreciates at an annual rate of 7%, you would have paid back its full value in about 22 years. Nevertheless, this overlooks the fact that the property itself has appreciated by over 350% during that time.

Saylor also suggested that people should consider alternative investments like gold, which has seen a six-year return of 12%. He even ranked Bitcoin's performance against other assets, saying it is up 33% over the same period. However, his own investment in Bitcoin has not been immune to market fluctuations, with Strategy experiencing a 50% drawdown from its peak.