It's only worth money if you are (1) willing to sell it and can obtain housing arrangements for less in your desired location or (2) you take out a equity mortgage on the house.

I would say that your primary home is an asset not an investment. It can be an investment after time if for example the house is large and appreciated a bit, and then the owners decide to sell it, invest the money and pay cash for a much smaller retirement property.

However, sadly as it sounds for at least 80% of homeowners, their house is either their only asset of any real value.

I bought my house in 1996. I was renting and didn't have a big enough garage to build a hot rod project I was starting, so I figured why not, buy a house with a big garage. I didn't buy it for the investment, but now that I have over 300k in equity, I'll call it a good investment.


We are in Northern California and prices keep climbing. It will help us out when we sell and get the heck out of California and buy a house in a free state.