The age-old question, Stocks vs. Real estate. While both have their advantages and disadvantages, both assets have performed extremely well over the last 20+ years. One distinct feature that differentiates the two is leverage. Being able to put down a portion of capital and pay it back over many years is second nature to most Canadians. While this can be done with stocks, most people shy away from the use of leverage within their portfolio. But if you were to remove the use of leverage and compared the two, surprisingly, the S&P TSX outperforms the national housing average over the last 20 years. The TSX has more than kept up with the housing market even after the exponential return in the last few years. Comparing the two asset classes can be difficult at times as they both have very different characteristics but should be noted that both play a very important role in someone’s complete wealth picture.

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