Check out this infographic from iMoney.sg. A lot of people tend to look back at how much their home prices have appreciated and brag, “Hey check it out, I made X dollars on my property!!” What they don’t take into account is the amount of fees, surcharges, and interest they’ve had to pay over the years – which really adds up.

Taking the example of a 30-year, 2%, $500K mortgage below, the buyer would have had to pay fees, insurance and interest payments amounting to around $208,215 over his 30-year loan! That means that his home price will have to rise by a whopping 42% before he even breaks even.

I’m not saying that home ownership is a bad investment per se, but people should really be factoring all these costs into their calculations before they assume that property is “always” a good investment.