"Why would I sell my Google stock for a house if I can borrow against it instead?"
I get the appeal.
Say you need $500,000 for the down payment.
Sell the stock and you may owe taxes.
Borrow against it and you keep your Google shares.
If the stock keeps climbing, great. You still own it.
But I'd want to see the other version too.
What happens if you buy the house and Google drops 40%?
(and I'm not here to debate whether it will)
My point is, run the scenario.
The stock is down.
You still have the mortgage.
And you still owe the $500,000 you borrowed.
Depending on how the loan is set up, at some point the lender could ask you to put up more money or sell investments.
That changes the conversation for me.
It's not that I'm against borrowing against stock.
There are situations where it can make sense.
But if the reason for doing it is mostly:
"I really don't want to pay the tax."
Well, I'd want to run the ugly scenario first.
Sometimes the tax bill you can see is easier to accept than the risk you can't.