You may have noticed it already: your friends who moved to the United States buy homes there almost immediately. They don’t wait for five years, or until they finally get a green card. They buy their homes right away. When you are still chasing rental listings back home, they are posting photos of their housewarming. But how? In a video shared on Instagram, Parth Vijayvergiya, an Indian man, spoke about how he bought his home in the US. And it is more nuanced than ‘anything is possible in America’. When rent and mortgage payments collide The maths behind why your friend could afford a home in the US immediately is actually simple. It really boils down to how rent and mortgage payments work in the country. Paying a mortgage feels almost the same as paying rent there. Parth Vijayvergiya broke down his own purchase in the video. “We live in the US, and the house you see behind me, we bought three years ago. It was around $359,000, which is around ₹3.25 crore today. Today, its value is around $390,000 to $400,000, which is around ₹3.7 crore,” he said. But the real deal is in how much one pays initially to buy a house. “When we bought this house, we paid $45,000, which is around ₹40 lakh as a down payment,” Vijayvergiya said. This is only about 12.5% of the purchase price. “In the US or any other European country, it's easy to buy a house because the loan terms are 30 years. If you take a loan for 30 years, then the payment and the rent of such a house are very similar,” he explained. 30-year fixed-rate mortgages spread payments across 360 months, making them lower than shorter-term loans. The trade-off is interest, but for someone asking ‘rent or buy?’, the monthly number is what sticks. When you're looking at nearly identical payments either way, the maths shifts radically in favour of ownership. And that’s exactly why many people can immediately afford a home. “So, you must be seeing that your friends who are going to Europe or America, they are buying a house. Because of this, you can buy a house by paying a 10–15% down payment, and the process is very straightforward,” he added. About 66% of Indian buyers purchase primary residences, according to the National Association of REALTORS’ 2025 report. This is the highest share among the major foreign-buyer groups in the country. In most rental markets in America, you're sending money to a landlord who builds equity on your dime. On the other hand, with a mortgage, you're building equity in an appreciating asset over time. That’s exactly why buying a home feels better than renting one. Internet reacts The video is flooded with comments, with netizens agreeing with the man while also pointing out some facts he might have overlooked. “True, initially the home loan used to be at a very minimal interest rate, i.e., 10 years ago, as the price of property in the US doesn't go suddenly up or down. But now things are not the same, it seems,” one user said. Another user pointed out that prices differ across the states. “Bro, please make the video without generalising America. State the name of your state. Wherever you live is not the whole US. I live in the Bay Area (Silicon Valley), and home prices here are way over $1.5M. Other information, like loan tenure and down payment, is correct. Mortgage vs rent is inaccurate.” A third agreed, “NYC houses start at $1.2M minimum for a two-bed.” Another asked how the man managed to get a good deal. “I live in the US too. How did u get the house for such a cheap price just three years ago? The prices are quite high now; of course, depends on the area too.” For many Indian immigrants, homeownership also connects to deeper cultural values around property and security. So, real estate is an important part of their wealth-building strategy.
