The housing boom of the last five years has made many homeowners feel like very, very smart investors.

So begins an article in today's NY Times with a common-sense perspective on investing in residential real estate. Since 1980, the S&P 500 has returned an average of 10.2% per year while, according to the Times article, housing in even the hottest real estate markets - Los Angeles and New York - has averaged about a 7% return over that same time frame.

"The biggest value of the house is the shelter it provides," said Thomas Z. Lys, an accounting professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. "Too many people are fixated on speculation whereas most of the benefit really comes from usage."

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