Article reminds me of joke but with different perspective: Bill Gates walks in to bar and everyone is billionaire, on average. The thing is that cities which have not resisted expansion (like Atlanta), prices of home has grew very modestly - far below S&P. For cities like NYC or SF there no end in sight. However if you average out then real estate may not be so appealing. So basically any statements like real estate is great or poor investments are wrong without proper context.