A house is an asset that also provides shelter services. In addition, if you buy a house with a mortgage, you're only putting down a portion of the house's cos

A house is an asset that also provides shelter services. In addition, if you buy a house with a mortgage, you're only putting down a portion of the house's cost, while you will realize all of the capital gains. Contrast with owning stocks where you (in the typical buy-and-hold case) have to keep 100% of your money in the stock in order to keep owning the stock.