Warren Buffett once said ‘a house can be a nightmare if the buyer’s eyes are bigger than his wallet’ but thinks his $31,500 investment is one of his best
沃伦·巴菲特曾说：“如果买家的眼界大于钱包，房子就可能成为噩梦”，但他认为自己3.15万美元的投资是最好的投资之一
Ask Warren Buffett for investment advice, and you might expect the billionaire CEO to tout his long-held stakes in Coca-Cola or American Express. But according to Buffett, who turned 94 in August, his Berkshire Hathaway holdings are less impressive than the personal investments he’s made throughout the years.
如果向沃伦·巴菲特请求投资建议时，你可能会认为这位亿万富翁CEO会推荐他长期持有的可口可乐或美国运通股份。但根据巴菲特的说法，多年来，伯克希尔·哈撒韦公司持股的收益表现并不像他的一项个人投资那样令人印象深刻。
Among the best: the Omaha house he has famously lived in since 1958, when he and his late wife Susan bought it for $31,500, or around $336,700 in today’s dollars. But the housing market has grown in value much faster than the rate of inflation—The home is now worth over $1.4 million,according to Realtor.com, which at roughly 4,300% is a trademark Buffett rate of return.
巴菲特最好的投资之一是他自1958年以来一直居住的奥马哈房子。当时，他和已故的妻子苏珊以3.15万美元的价格（相当于今天的33.67万美元）购买了这座房子。但房价上涨的速度远远超过了通货膨胀的速度。根据Realtor.com的数据，这座房子现在的市值已经超过了140万美元，投资回报率为4300%。正是典型的巴菲特式投资回报率。
The world-famous investor has long said the five-bedroom home comes in just behind his two wedding rings in terms of payoff. “All things considered, the third best investment I ever made was the purchase of my home, though I would have made far more money had I instead rented and used the purchase money to buy stocks,” he wrote in a 2010 Berkshire Hathaway letter to shareholders. Like many homebuyers, though, he didn’t look at it purely from a dollar-and-cents perspective. “For the $31,500 I paid for our house, my family and I gained 52 years of terrific memories with more to come.”
长期以来，这位世界著名的投资者一直表示，这座五卧室的房子在回报上仅次于他的两枚结婚戒指。巴菲特在2010年致伯克希尔·哈撒韦公司股东的信中写道：“综合来看，我做过的第三个最好投资就是购买了这座房子，尽管如果我本可以租房并把购房的钱用于购买赚得更多的股票。”然而，像许多购房者一样，他并非仅仅从金钱角度考虑。“我为房子支付的3.15万美元，换来了我和家人52年的美好回忆，而且更多的美好仍将继续。”
Despite being one of the richest men in the world, Buffett is far less flashy than some of his fellow billionaires. The financial media is rife with reports of his love for McDonald’s breakfasts and a crisp can (or five) of Coke. He once drove a car with a vanity license plate that read “THRIFTY,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
尽管是世界上最富有的人之一，巴菲特却比起一些亿万富翁同行显得低调得多。各大金融媒体充斥着关于他喜爱麦当劳早餐和清爽可乐（或五罐可乐）的报道。据《华尔街日报》报道，他曾开过一辆带有“THRIFTY”字样的个性化车牌的车。
His home, which is located close to Berkshire Hathaway’s corporate offices, is one of the better-known examples of his frugality. It is currently the only real estate in his personal portfolio.
巴菲特的家（位于伯克希尔·哈撒韦公司总部附近）是他节俭生活方式的一个较为人所熟知的例子。现在，这套房子是他个人投资组合中唯一的房地产。
“I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” Buffett, who is currently worth around $120 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, told CNBC in 2017.
“我不会用它来交换任何东西。”巴菲特在2017年接受CNBC采访时表示。
Though it’s his most famous residence, Buffett had also lived in a different Omaha home for a few years previously,according to the Wall Street Journal. On the more extravagant side, he also owned a beach house in Laguna Beach, Calif., which he bought for $150,000 in the 1970s and sold for around $7.5 million in 2018.
据《华尔街日报》报道，尽管这是他最著名的住所，巴菲特在此之前也曾住在奥马哈的另一套房子里。另一个更为奢侈的方面，巴菲特也曾在加利福尼亚州拉古纳海滩拥有一座海滨别墅，他在1970年代以15万美元购买，并于2018年以大约750万美元的价格卖出。
The real estate market in the U.S. has changed significantly since Buffett bought his home in 1958. Now, prices across the country have increased precipitously, and interest rates have more than doubled in just the past few years. With limited inventory, it’s harder to find a home to buy at all than it’s ever been. For instance, the median home price in Omaha today is around $275,000, according to Redfin, well below the national median but almost nine times what Buffett paid for his house.
自巴菲特于1958年购买他的住宅以来，美国房地产市场发生了重大变化。如今，全美范围内的房价急剧上涨，且利率在过去几年中翻了一番。由于库存有限，找到一处可购买的房子比以往任何时候都要困难。例如，根据Redfin的数据，现在奥马哈的中位房价约为27.5万美元，虽然低于全国中位数，但几乎是巴菲特当年支付的房价的九倍。
As Buffett himself wrote in the 2010 letter, while it is easy to feel pressured into buying a home—and all it represents in American society—it can be smarter to rent, depending on your personal financial circumstances. Even the ultra wealthy can overextend themselves if they’re not prudent. That warning rings even truer today, when affordability has deteriorated so much.
正如巴菲特在2010年的信中所写，虽然人们很容易在社会压力下购买房子（特别是在美国社会中，房屋象征着一切），但从个人财务状况出发，有时选择租房可能更为明智。即使是超富阶层也可能因为不谨慎而导致过度借贷。在如今个人负担能力下降如此之多的情况下，这一警告显得尤为重要。
“A house can be a nightmare if the buyer’s eyes are bigger than his wallet and if a lender—often protected by a government guarantee—facilitates his fantasy,” Buffett wrote. “Our country’s social goal should not be to put families into the house of their dreams, but rather to put them into a house they can afford.”
“如果买家的眼界大于钱包，且贷款方（通常受到政府担保保护）助长了他的幻想，那么房子就可能成为他的噩梦。”巴菲特写道：“我们国家的社会目标不应该是让家庭住进梦寐以求的房子，而是应该让他们住进负担得起的房子。”
相关文章：传奇投资家巴菲特，老房子一住65年：低调生活背后的财富和人生哲学
This article is intended solely for English language learning purposes and should not be construed as property advice.
本文仅供英语学习之用，不应被视为房产建议。
