Past performance is no predictor of future success, but it is interesting to compare the past performance of different investments.
These charts show the value of $100 invested in real estate (red) and the stock market (blue.)
The chart above shows that over the last 15 years, the stock market was the place to be.
Over the last 30 years, real estate won, but not by a significant margin.
Sometimes we think that the stock market has wild swings in value because we see it each day on the TV, but let’s also not forget 2006-2009 and 2020 declines in real estate values. But, for both assets, if you were able to simply buy and hold through the turbulence, you were rewarded handsomely in the long run.