and I disagree profoundly... owning a home is a great long-term investment, and a great way to ease your tax burden, enabling you to put more money into retirement, and have the ability to fund those expensive college educations down the road (HELOC, or down-size home, etc)
This is the common perception, but it's not one I've heard offered forth by many folks who know what they're talking about that don't have their livelihood tied to the construction, sale, financing, etc of homes in one way or another. Money in a diversified portfolio constructed by someone that knows what they're doing produces better real returns with lower risk than residential housing in every long-term scenario that accurately measures total costs and total returns.
Most people will buy a home for a multitude of reasons, some financial, some non-financial. For those who buy, buying a smaller home than you can afford and putting the difference in a diversified portfolio - ideally in a tax advantaged retirement account of some sort - will be a better choice than maxing out your mortgage payment on a primary residence or a combination of a primary residence and a second home in just about every conceivable long term scenario.
http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/article/102603/why-your-home-is-not-the-investment-you-think-it-is
What pundits say is one thing; reality is another. And anything in the aggregate blurs the possibilities of the individual.
I made much more money off my 1st home than I did off of 10-15% stashed into a 401(k), Roths, and other investments over the same time frame (yes, factoring in the amount of $ going into each).
And then there is that pesky, intangible quality of life issue...