Originally Posted by palermo22

Like any financial chart - snapshots give misleading information. While it's true that home prices have been on the decline for the past five years - if you spread that picture out to the past ten or twenty years - then the negative 29% pales in comparison to the gains that were made. A mortgage - as long as you are not over your head - is a worthwhile liability because it's attached to an asset that will continue to appreciate (most likely with inflation) over the long term (just as the stock market will - again, long term).