“Should I buy a house?” That’s the question that a listener, Miranda, brought to Explain It to Me, Vox’s weekly call-in show. “I think that’s always been the go-to investment for past generations,” she says. “You buy a house and that’s kind of your retirement plan, and that just doesn’t seem realistic or even attainable.”

Miranda is far from alone in questioning whether homeownership is still the reliable engine of building wealth as it was for past generations. The US is in the midst of a housing shortage as millennials and Gen Z reach their prime home-buying years, but many are locked out of the market. Gone are the low post-Great Recession interest rates, all while the net worth of homeowners eclipses that of renters.

It’s a complicated calculation, one that Mandi Woodruff-Santos knows well. She’s the host of Brown Ambition, a wealth and finance podcast. “I bought my house in 2018, which feels like a thousand years ago,” she says. And initially, she wasn’t completely sold on the idea of homeownership. “I didn’t realize how little I desired to actually own a home until my husband was like, ‘Get me out of this concrete jungle! I want to touch grass.’” Eventually, a house just outside New York City won her over. “We were able to find a home in a great neighborhood that was within walking distance of the train. I saw this little house, and I thought, ‘I want that house.’ And that’s how I ended up here.”

How do you determine if homeownership is right for you? And if it isn’t, what are other ways to build wealth? That’s the topic of discussion on this week’s episode of Explain It to Me, which has been edited for length and clarity. You can listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts. If you’d like to submit a question, send an email........

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