Timing is huge part of it .. the real estate market goes in long term cycles, and if you buy at a good time you may do well over 10+ year timeframe, but if you buy at the peak then it may take that long just to break even if you sell (just in terms of house price, forgetting taxes/etc, and real-estate fees - 5-10% of price !).
Then of course you have all the expenses of home ownership, starting with real estate taxes ($20K/yr by me), maintenance (incl. costly items such as roof replacement), etc.
Deliberately investing in real estate, where you can choose the city/market, type of dwelling, need for renovation, etc, may have a higher chance of being profitable, although even there obviously buying at bottom vs top of the market makes a big difference. For people just buying a house to live in, conventional wisdom is not to expect it to be financially preferable (all told) than renting, even if sometimes - depending on timing - it may turn out to be.
Then of course you have all the expenses of home ownership, starting with real estate taxes ($20K/yr by me), maintenance (incl. costly items such as roof replacement), etc.
Deliberately investing in real estate, where you can choose the city/market, type of dwelling, need for renovation, etc, may have a higher chance of being profitable, although even there obviously buying at bottom vs top of the market makes a big difference. For people just buying a house to live in, conventional wisdom is not to expect it to be financially preferable (all told) than renting, even if sometimes - depending on timing - it may turn out to be.