Yup, most people buy a house falsely believing it is an investment. But the rate of return is usually very low or negative because of all the expenses that are "forgotten". The idea is to keep your living expenses a low as practical so that you have money left over to invest and build wealth. That can be investment real estate, or even just low-cost index funds. Is buying a house to live in (expecially in super-expensive cities like LA) better than renting and putting your extra cash into low-cost index funds that take no effort? Emotionally, maybe, financially maybe not!