A house should be an investment in the sense that it is a vehicle to build equity. The whole point of paying a mortgage for 30 years is so when you retire, you

A house should be an investment in the sense that it is a vehicle to build equity. The whole point of paying a mortgage for 30 years is so when you retire, you own your house free and clear and don't have a house payment. Which means you can retire on a comparatively smaller nest egg. Now if you want to say that you should buy a house betting on significant capital gains over inflation, that's foolish.