Most people consider a house an asset because the trend over the last 60 years has been that a house will go up in value. This may or may not always be the case and a lot of people lose a lot of money buying and selling their house. Yea in the end they might get a nice check they can put in the bank but after reflecting on the amount of money for sweat equity, maintance, loan interest, closing costs, real estate agent fees, and other misc. costs most people have a negative value on their house. And buying a house is a neccessary evil for most people vs. renting. Personally if I could do it all over I would still live with my parents. Sigh.

I say all this after I have bought and sold 2 houses in the last 5 years with some of that time over lapping. My primary house I had 5 years, just sold, and made $15k in but in the end lost $6k on paper. Then there was my other house which was an "investment" I had it for 1.5 years. And lost $17k in cash and $23k on paper.