Is a Home a Good Investment?

I’ve never met anyone successful with money that didn’t own a principal residence.
What makes a home a great investment?  To start with, leverage which translates to your down payment.
Assume that you purchase a home for $300,000 with $10,000 down.  The market fluctuates up and down but 10 years later the home is worth $350,000.  You might conclude that you have made $50,000 on your original investment of $300000 for a return of 17% over 10 years!  Not too impressive.  However, you have actually made $40,000 or 400% on your original investment of $10,000.  (Yes, you’ve paid mortgage payments too but you needed a place to live and would have paid rent anyways).
Secondly, the $40,000 you have made is not subject to taxation because in Canada all principal residences are eligible for non-taxable, capital gains.
I also like the forced savings aspect of a home.  As long as you stay on your original amortization schedule, the expense goes away and you have a valuable asset.
This valuable asset can be important because at some point you may look to finance a business or an emergency and the first thing a lender will look at is your equity.  Nothing is more desirable to a lender than having equity in your home.
Further, inflation is reality.  While it is not prominent today, history has a way of repeating itself.  Hard assets, like a home and more specifically property, have been a good hedge against inflation in the past.
Finally, assuming you own your home when you retire you are not forced to make monthly payments to live and as necessary, can turn your equity into an income stream to fund the realities of retirement.
OK, now the caveats.  Be realistic about what you can afford putting in place contingencies for the new roof and other repairs down the road.   Do a stress test with rising interest rates as they will not stay this low forever.  Consider the nature of your work and future cash flow.  Don’t use your home as a piggy bank to finance new vehicles or trips.  The rare person makes money moving too often.
Granted, there are no guarantees and this is not something that will necessarily bear fruit except over the long term.  The big gains made by past generations may also not be there either.  Re-read the previous paragraph.