Real estate is what you make of it - buy low, improve with smarts, enjoy it and sell high when the market is right. When everyone else is selling, buy…and buy the worst house in a great neighborhood (location, location, location) then repeat and rinse!
I feel bad for those who bought into the interest-only craze or who got variable rate (balloon) mortgages - get a 30 (or better yet, a 15) year fixed rate mortgage and then make the equivalent of one extra payment a year, you’ll pay off a 30 year in 17 years!