Real estate, at least the land aspect of real estate, should never be an investment. It leads to misallocatiom of resources and rentierism.
The only aspect of "investment" should come from proper maintenance of structures, and replacing structures with greater density as soon as the land values justify it.
Home ownership as investment has been a generational disaster
Yes, in more ways than one. To juice returns, sure. But the main reason people lever into real estate is because they don't have the cash to buy. So most homebuyers enter into a favorable high-leverage asset whose gains are given preferred tax treatment.
Discussing residential RE as if leverage is optional is not useful.
Sure, but discussing it as a "juicy" investment that returns 5x the upside because you are leveraged 5x is also a false narrative that doesn't include all the fees and costs.
