Not who you responded to but it depends entirely on the location. In the northeast there is decent and consistent appreciation and there has been for decades because it has always been populated. But home appreciation over 20, 30, or 50 years will struggle to beat the S&P500. Factor in property taxes and upkeep and you may just barely keep up with inflation. Just from inflation $216k in 06 would be $358k in 2025. As an asset its primary function is being a store of wealth that happens to be the roof on your head, something you can refinance to borrow money, and something to sell basically to pay for whatever you downgrade to when you enter the stage of preparing for death, whether it’s a condo or a nursing home.
All the money to be made comes from buying in bulk and renting out to people who cannot afford because everyone bought to rent out, while local government restricts supply through zoning because it would lower property values of everyone who only had their house as retirement because wages have not kept up with productivity or inflation and pensions and unions have been gutted.







Yeah this is more like a return to the norm, just more blatant and overt. And even earlier than 100 years, before America was strong enough to reach out into the world and do this to other countries, it was manifest destiny against the indigenous. You won’t find a corner of this planet unmolested by American imperialism, and the hardest hit are still problems that persist to this day.
Whether it’s the Panama Canal, the Monroe doctrine, the Banana republics, or atrocities in Vietnam and Cambodia and Laos. Intervening in civil wars and conflicts that would eventually create Taiwan and South Korea and Israel as American vassal states built with the purpose of serving American interests. Fomenting a coup in Iran over oil which would usher in the Iranian revolution, or smashing Iraq which created a power vacuum for isis to form. Wherever and whenever America reaches out into the world, death and destruction will typically follow. And if it isn’t leaving a shattered and broken state for whoever is left to pick up the pieces, then it’s funding and arming one side of a war to create a satellite state to enrich itself which leaves a conflict ready to reignite at any moment.