But the wealth accumulation is often illusury. We bought our home in 1973 for $25,000 and sold it in 2005 for $330,000.

Whoopee, right?

No, because we bought a smaller retirement home for $300,000. If we had not done that, we could have rented in a retirement community for about $30,000 a year, so those "gains" would be consumed very quickly.

Of course if we moved somewhere cheaper, we could have pocketed some gains, but cheaper has its own issues.

As with any investment, we can cherry pick times when we would have profited greatly, but the reality is often murky and fickle.