finance

I struggle to believe that a primary residence is an asset, I see it more as a store of value. 

It seems like you can’t really make money off your primary residence, because in order to sell it you would have to buy another house. Theoretically for all the boomers who bought their houses for $50,000 and are now selling them for $1m they have paper gains of $950,000 but the going rate for comparable houses is $1m so if they plan on buying a new house they will end up in relatively the same position they are currently in. 

Let me know if I’m looking at this in the wrong way. Obviously I’m neglecting value add improvements that add value to the house exceeding the cost of the improvements.