Replies

Yeah, your moneys better spent on nice salon nails, cell phones and flat screen tvs.

A home is not an investment. It is a place to live. If you think that housing prices are going to get anywhere near the highs in the next 15-20 years, you are crazy. Inventories are massive. That leaves a lot of home sellers that bought in the last 6 years screwed. I am in the Real Estate business and this investment idea is one reason why the housing market is in the toilet. Pulling from lines of credit on your house to put landscaping and granite counter tops made peoples investment in their homes far more than it's actual worth. That is why so many are upside down now.

For many, salon trips and a flat screen would have been far better investments than installing the heated kitchen floors.

Note also the issue with job instability. I am not convinced that we are going back to unemployment rates of 4.7%. If you bought a house in Florida or California or Michigan, you may have a hard time finding a job.

Now, if you could pick up and move to TX or some other more vibrant state, then getting a job may be easier.

But renters can move to new states a lot more easily than "home owners". So, owning a house is not much of an investment, and it can be a real ball-and-chain if you need to make changes in your life.