Yes, but if you're looking at them as an investment then you need to look at the overall picture. Just looking at prices over time is interesting, but it doesn't give the financial picture from the perspective of a homeowner because it ignores taxes, maintenance and repairs. Once all that's factored in the picture tends to get a lot less rosy.
For example, over the past 25 years the average price of a US home has grown by about 14% in real terms. I'm too lazy to calculate out what that would be as an annual percentage rate, but it's definitely lower than the average US property tax rate, which I believe is a smidge under 1%. So already, even without considering other expenses, houses tend to be gradual money losers on average.
