Also, the housing market — whether or not a house will appreciate in value — depends a lot on location, but a lot of people lack flexibility in where they can l

Also, the housing market — whether or not a house will appreciate in value — depends a lot on location, but a lot of people lack flexibility in where they can live, because of job, family, etc. You can't pick a house the same way you pick stocks, the constraints are totally different. Not to mention that houses are approximately infinitely less liquid than stocks.