Exactly.
Location Location Location.
Take the house on Green Acres for example. Transplant it to Bel Air. Then it becomes worth millions.
My first house looked much like the one on Green Acres except one side was log. It came with some land the family had purchased. Second home was a single wide my wife brought into our marriage. Third and final home is a double-wide 1200 sq ft sitting on same land as cabin was with a great view. It was paid off within about 8 years. Smartest move money wise I ever did. Four years into payments I was disabled.
I realize one thing now as I've gotten older if something happened to our home I could live in an even smaller and more simple dwelling. My Mom lives in about a 3600 sq ft two story home and is alone after dad passed. The home has high maintenance, has a wooden bridge on the driveway to maintain, and is far more house than she needs. But she can't afford to take a loss on it. She and dad paid it off back in the mid 1970's.
I have a 12'X12' storage building beside my house. If it were just myself I could live OK in it and be comfortable. The ones the article is aimed at? They have good sense if they know not to get suckered into Cali's over inflated housing market especially in these economic times.