A lot of people are still making major housing decisions using rules that worked 10 or 20 years ago. The problem isn’t that those old rules were “bad.” It’s that prices, interest rates, insurance costs, remote work, and rental markets have shifted so much that the same advice can now backfire. When housing assumptions don’t match what’s happening on the ground, people stretch too far, buy the wrong kind of property, or feel trapped by costs they didn’t plan for. The good news is you can update your framework without becoming a real estate expert. Here are five common housing assumptions that no longer match reality, plus the smarter way to think about each one.
