Good for you, we also bought much less house than we could have. last year, all so we could go 15 years. Hope to have it paid off much less than that.
Housing as an investment is for suckers. It’s just a place to live.
I disaggree housing is a great LONGTERM investment. Real estate typically appreciates 6-7 % a year.
The problem was people FLIPPING houses and low/zero down payment mortgages.
Plus there are tax advantages such as mortgage interest, real estate taxes that are all deductable from your income tax.