Instead you've wasted it on a depreciating asset that only requires repairs, costs taxes every year, and isn't likely to appreciate in value for the next 3-4 years.
I'm not sure you understand the difference between a depreciating asset and an appreciating asset. With very few exceptions, a car is a depreciating asset. It's worth less tomorrow than it is today. A house (with few exceptions) is not a depreciating asset. With the singular exception of 2007-2010, home prices tend to rise.
Also, I'm sorry to say, unless your definition of "conservative instement" includes a money printing machine, no conservative investment vehicle since the end of 2008 has broken even 3%, and 5% since 2007 let alone 6%.
I don't know where you're getting your numbers from, but even Treasury I bonds were returning 5.93% (according to the calculator at http://www.treasurydirect.gov/BC/SBCPrice).
In any case, "home prices tend to rise" doesn't make sense if you're trying to justify buying one as an investment. Borrow ten times your net worth and buy a house hoping it'll appreciate. Not exactly a brilliant investment scheme.
Also, you could argue that a house is a depreciating asset. Shit breaks and you have to maintain it. If you were a business you'd actually have to account for depreciation on buildings.
"In the United States, residential rental buildings are depreciable over a 27.5 year or 40 year life, other buildings over a 39 or 40 year life, and land improvements over a 15 or 20 year life, all using the straight line method."
Basically the only thing that will appreciate when owning a house is the land it sits on. A really nice house in a crappy area is going to lose value until the demand for the location starts going up again.
Sorry, we don't have those in the U.S. Our equivalent is called a Certificate of Deposit (CD) and those have just finally climbed above the 1% range after a few years sporting near 0% ROI. Put another way, they weren't even worth the time it took to go down to the bank to buy one.
Now...if you have something over $100,000 USD burning a hole in your pocket that you won't need to touch for a while, you can purchase something called a jumbo CD, and the 5-year instruments will just break 2.3%.
I'm not sure you understand the difference between a depreciating asset and an appreciating asset. With very few exceptions, a car is a depreciating asset. It's worth less tomorrow than it is today. A house (with few exceptions) is not a depreciating asset. With the singular exception of 2007-2010, home prices tend to rise.
Also, I'm sorry to say, unless your definition of "conservative instement" includes a money printing machine, no conservative investment vehicle since the end of 2008 has broken even 3%, and 5% since 2007 let alone 6%.
http://www.fhlbdm.com/rg_history.htm