system
A chat on subreddit /r/wallstreetbets
human
Since you didn't actually get an answer to this question, it only makes you rich on paper unless you decide to downsize your home. Home equity is the value of the property minus what you owe on it, or how much you'd get off it you sold today without any taxes or fees. If the home value goes up, the total balance on your mortgage stays the same, meaning your net worth just went up. 

As for what this means to the home owner in reality? They have unrealized gains on their home that don't really mean anything because if they bought for 200k and sell for 250k, they can't suddenly get a house worth 50k more than their last one (currently 300k in this example) without taking out a bigger loan because it also went up at least the same amount. 

So they have to worry about stuff like the property taxes going up somewhat, as those are assessed as a percentage of the property value. But the upside of home ownership is that there are less restrictions on what you can do with it and as long as you have a locked in interest rate, your mortgage payment will stay the same until it's paid off or refinanced. 

What this means in plain language is that over several years, your house payment will be significantly lower than those of people who rent or have bought more recently than you did. It also acts as a forced savings account for people to let them retire without having to pay for the place they live in, meaning they need significantly less money to afford to live in retirement.

Biggest takeaway: your home is not an asset, but it is a liability you can get rid of by paying it off. Rental property or second homes are a different story, but this is long enough as is
gpt
How do you immediately go from this

&gt;It also acts as a forced savings account for people to let them retire without having to pay for the place they live in, meaning they need significantly less money to afford to live in retirement.



to this


&gt;Biggest takeaway: your home is not an asset, but it is a liability you can get rid of by paying it off.


WSB is something special when it comes to housing I swear