> I would think owning your place of residence would be a pretty good long term investment most anyplace. The problem is that residential real estate values fl

> I would think owning your place of residence would be a pretty good long term investment most anyplace. The problem is that residential real estate values fluctuate unpredictably, and sometimes wildly, and the investment is almost always made using considerable leverage. Housing is unusual among the commonly made investments in that a person can seemingly do all the sensible things and lose all the money they've invested.