Opher, thank you for the discussion. Your article supports everything I stated as you confirm that owning a home is a bad investment as it will most likely lose money over time. I never stated that renting is better than owning a home, and in fact, I said the opposite in my article.

A "less bad" investment is not a good investment. That is why calling a house an asset is misleading and has helped millions of middle-class Americans fail to advance financially in life.

Calling it a liability, since it is an expense, helps people realize that it should be minimized and therefore buy a more affordable home or potentially rent as their situation dictates. You suggest the same in your article.

I just think that calling something that loses money an asset or an investment is misleading, even if it is "less bad" than the alternatives.

So in summary, the only thing I'm "missing" is a desire to spread a misleading concept that hurts people financially.

I can only advise on what has worked for me, and treating living costs as a liability has pushed me to look for true assets, which has in turn greatly improved my financial situation in life. If I had stayed with the mainstream advice that my house is an asset, I would be much poorer than I am today.