Model Behavior: How a Spreadsheet Saved me $165K

A Seven-Year Test of My Buy vs. Rent Model

Welcome back to Home Economics, a data-driven newsletter about the American housing market.
I’m on paternity leave—but it turns out that babies sleep a lot. I’m seizing these scattered windows of opportunity to finalize an analysis I began over the summer: calculating exactly how much I saved by owning my home (2017–2024) instead of renting.