This depends on your local market. Where I used to live I saw a sideways on my home price for nearly a decade. I watched other larger markets going up YoY. Your market conditions will probably be different than others.
My parents bought a house in the early 70s. They paid about 12,000 for it. That same house now is being appraised at about 210k. However, if they sold they could take that money and buy a comparable house for about 210k. Housing is a good hedge for inflation. It is a mediocre investment vehicle, unless you happen to win the live somewhere where supply is not where it needs to be lottery.
I bought my house and paid for it as quick as I could. The saving on the rent alone was worth it to me in my area vs the cost of the house.
It is an insane investment vehicle if you keep using the leverage and prices are going up faster than inflation (which is part of the problem).
Arguably they might not be going up much more than inflation once you calculate all the various new requirements for new buildings, but it's still a problem. In absolute long terms, housing can't become completely unaffordable.
Long term it is wildly affordable. 0$ rent is way better than some of the rents I have been seeing lately. Owning property and renting it out is a nice 'gig' if you are into that sort of thing. But if you have 5 properties and one bad tenet they can wipe out 2 years of ROI very quickly (had family members this happened to).
Holding value is also not necessarily a bad thing. You want a pyramid of investments. With your base being solid boring things. Then once you have those nicely going. Risk is not really that risky. It is not 'i am not going to eat today' it is 'darn lost that investment life goes on'.
It depends on the risk model you are making. My current one involves keeping a house and then using the money I would use for rent as investments. Think of whatever you are renting or your payment per month is. Now think of what could you do with that extra amount of money per month. I have had hundreds of people tell me the same thing. That there are these great investments out there where I could turn the value of a house into 1500-2000 a month with low work. Yet no one points them out. They 'are out there'.
My risk model is zero debt and no rent. Giving money to other people for borrowing is a risk model I used when I was younger. I no longer do that. It is like getting a 50% raise on the same income.
Or as a old saying says "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush". I am well into 7 figures on wealth instead of low to mid six figures in debt. You can play debt in that way. But it is risky and has lead many to ruin. However I traded debt for a reliable income at a fixed pace that was well above my spend level. I curb stomped all of my debt own a nice house, nice car and paid for with no debt. Debt is thief of your future potential. Debt can be used for that sort of thing but you have to use it extremely carefully. Most people dont. I was not among the gifted of picking the right things to invest in. I also know to almost the penny the potential I lost. Because hindsight is 20/20. It is nearly identical to what I have. Because I basically became the lender instead of the borrower. Debt is now a tool for me instead of a worry.
My parents bought a house in the early 70s. They paid about 12,000 for it. That same house now is being appraised at about 210k. However, if they sold they could take that money and buy a comparable house for about 210k. Housing is a good hedge for inflation. It is a mediocre investment vehicle, unless you happen to win the live somewhere where supply is not where it needs to be lottery.
I bought my house and paid for it as quick as I could. The saving on the rent alone was worth it to me in my area vs the cost of the house.