Investing in Homes - Not worth it per Robert Shiller?

[Sonny Sach]

Hello all,

I was just reading an article in the NYTIMES from Robert Shiller:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/12/upshot/the-overi...

where he states:

"Historically, however, investing in homes just hasn’t rewarded most homeowners that much. As I have calculated, home prices corrected for Consumer Price Index inflation nationally were nearly flat for the century ending in 1990.  

And when nominal home prices are deflated by per capita disposable personal income, it turns out that real prices of existing homes fell 12 percent while real prices of newly built homes fell 30 percent from 1975 to 2015."

I am assuming that he is not taking into account factors such as leverage, depreciation, cash flow but I would love to hear back from the experienced investors, especially in comparison with investing in an index fund.  Real examples with macro numbers would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Sonny