Nick, thanks for reading and for your comment. Would you recommend to people that putting all their money into a personal residence so they can build up equity is a good way to build wealth? I doubt it. My guess is that you would recommend that they buy investment real estate and other assets that will build wealth much faster than a primary residence based on your previous comments on my articles.

The problem is not home equity, the problem is the average homeowner has some 60% of their net worth tied up in their primary residence. This is not productive wealth. There are some limited ways to use it, but it is far better to focus on building wealth outside of your primary residence rather than think that owning a home is the "best investment you will ever make" as so many do.

I wasn't able to start building wealth until I turned my nice, expensive house into a rental, where equity is actually useful. That equity went from earning approximately 0% rate of return to over 20% return. Since then, I have focused on owning investment real estate, and the results have been fantastic and VERY different from the results of equity in a primary residence.