What it does also is free my mind and time to focus with precision on the business side of real estate while being Active Duty military. 

You're investing, which is precisely what I recommend people do.

I bring the same discipline and precision from my athletic career into real estate.

The chart above would be better if it had the 10-year rather than 5-year treasury rate but the thesis is the same.

@Andrew Johnson Great advice - I totally agree, precisely why I'm on the forum.

You can expect a ~2% greater return over the lifetime of the investment with a company match vs. without.Are you getting that from the below chart?

This fact plays much stronger in my market than lending standards.Values around Puget Sound are increasing rapidly because of the success/types of employers based here (Amazon, Microsoft, Starbucks, Expedia, Costco, Alaska Air, PACCAR, Weyerhauser, Cray, F5, Redfin, Zillow) which is drawing in many high pay employees, the lack of supply noted by @David Dachtera, the copious number of all cash buyers (including non-US Citizens whom for example just bought my last home), exacerbated by restrictive building permits/zoning and the lack of land due to the amount of water/shorelines and steep hillsides; not so much because of a incremental lowering in lender standards.Median Seattle Home price $670,000, not exactly a first time home buyers market.https://www.zillow.com/seattle-wa/home-values/Overlay that chart with stock price charts for AMZN and EXPE...  

Not sure exactly what you asking here... the average is what is often skewed... the median indicates the most precise central tendency.If this data set represented the after tax pay of residents in the city of Smallville, notice how 1 through 6 are sort of in the same range, but 7 and 8 materially different. 

Bill Tracking California:https://caanet.org/kb/legislative-bill-charts-year...

I love real estate precisely because of the control it gives me, and the monthly income.