Owning a house might not be a good idea in the US, but it is lucrative in other countries. I know that there are countries where the price of houses appreciated more than 5%-6%. In my country, houses' value can appreciate 100% in five years depending on the location. If you live in an area experiencing a population explosion and increased tourism, you might understand my view.

There was an anti-tourism protest in Malaga, Spain because the the price of rent increased by 16.5% in a single year. House owners in such locations will be making good profits. There are also some countries where the government doesn't charge as high as 1% yearly property tax. In some countries, property tax doesn't even exist. Bitcoin is a good investment, however, diversifying your investment to the property business is not also a bad idea.

It depends enormously on the market situation on the real estate market. But also on the risk you're willing to accept.

Bitcoin has performed really well in the last 15 years. It was maybe the best-performing asset (besides from some pennystocks, memecoins and other assets with far less value).

But while there are lots of theories trying to tell new investors that "Bitcoin must go up forever", this is not a law of science. It is an assumption based on the past performance, and often taking into account the limited supply, and perhaps an "adoption curve" like Metcalfe's law based on network effect.

I however think it's time to move to a new kind of analysis to predict Bitcoin's future, an analysis based on the market niches it can occupy in the future. I for example expect that indeed Bitcoin could become a real alternative to gold, at least for the private sector and a few governments who can use Bitcoin to diversify. However, this will only occur if the volatility to the downside lowers. Nobody wanting a "stable investment" will invest in Bitcoin if some local economic problems in Japan drive down the price 15-20% like it occurred last Monday.

So I believe that Bitcoin is still a risky asset. For me, the probability that it continues to grow is very high, but it is not 100%. And it's very likely that the growth will continue to be bumpy, with highs and lows. What if you need your money just in the middle of a crypto winter?

So there are several investor profiles where an investment in a home (or real estate in general) is a better decision than an investment in Bitcoin.

What? I don't believe this. If somebody offers me a house at a 50% lower price I would definitely buy(or rent) that house. I wouldn't even care who committed suicide or who got killed inside that particular house. I'm not superstitious. Committing suicide due to "high social expectation" seems like the dumbest thing ever.
Anyway, investing in a house/apartment can be really lucrative, but it depends of the location. Buying in a home is a necessity in most countries around the world. I can't imagine having to live in a rented house/apartment across my entire life. I live in an inherited house and I'm glad that my grandparents bought that house 70 years ago(for a pretty cheap price).
We don't have to compare housing investments with investing in BTC. They don't belong to the same category.

There are lots to factor in when you consider buying a home alone, when you compare that with buying bitcoin those different possibilities almost double. This I believe makes it impossible to compare and not necessary too. You only considered the US, but other countries have different economic conditions and even in the US it varies from state to state.

Everyone should do their research and come up with actions suitable to their economic conditions.

If they are buying for stability will they also be bothered about rises that may occur along with crashes? Or will they need it to be completely stable or just fluctuate between the 2-4% range for long periods of time?

- Jay -

Some problems can consume 2 years of emergency funds in a few months. Loss of job or health problems are unpredictable issues that can distort your investment plans. Considering the economic situation in some countries do you think it is possible to save up to two years of emergency funds? You might never be able to invest in Bitcoin if you are waiting to have such an amount in an emergency account.   

I would gladly rent or even buy a house where the renter or owner committed suicide. Was it the house that made them commit suicide? Maybe this might be related to the cultural or religious orientation of your location. In my country, people are buried inside houses and immediately after the burial, the rooms are worked on for rentage . People don't care who was buried there because there is a shortage of accommodation. 

Owning a house as an investment choice is a lucrative investment which in most cases starts yielding profit immediately you're done building the house. I don't know how it works for the state in terms of taxation policy but in my region, the only bills you mostly pay as a house owner involves obtaining the necessary document at the time you're about to start building the house. After you've done all the spending in the building phase and you've probably rented the house out, you don't spend on  any other fee and no tax policy affect house owners in any way. In most instances, even when you're to carry out maintenance on the house, it's usually a combined effort from both the house owner and the tenants which means it involves less expenses for you as a house owner.

The only reason why investment into building of house isn't all that lucrative or considered the best choice for most average person is due to the cost of carrying out the investment process and knowing that you have to get the complete funds including the amount you're to use in obtaining the land, erect the house, do all the tilling, painting and wiring  which will amount to nothing less than 10 million Naira in my local currency. If after you've rented out a building that's worth this amount, let's say it's a 5 room apartment, the average pay per room is 200k of my local currency multiplied by the 5 will give you a million Naira. So in essence, for your 10 million naira investment to gain twice the invested amount, it has to stay an interval of at least 10 years before you get such returns. But If you consider investing such amount in an alternative thing, it's sure you will get more than that profit before the 10 years elasp.

The investment choice one chooses is totally a preferential thing and based on region and how favourable the policies of the government works for your case will go on to affect your investment decision.

Say what you want but having your own house is not terrible at all, but I prefer doing this only if I have the extra money, minus my investments and stocks, when free money comes that goes into my housing project.

I said this because I've seen people building houses and months later they can't even feed themselves well, you have to be making many incomes from different sources before you consider a house. ..

Its also possible that the house you build for business will not favour you much, because I have someone who spend lots of the money he makes from the house back on the same house, due to  mismanagement of the tenants, even damages fund isn't enough.

I don't know about the housing laws in America, but in my country, real estate is one of the best investments that anybody can go into, so far you did you investigations before buying to determine whether it's a disputed property or certified place to build. You don't need to worry about dip in real estate, from the time you own a property it'll keep increasing in value as the years goes by, except if their are issues Ike the ones that I mentioned. I think that the edge that Bitcoin investment has over real estate is that you don't need to be rich or gather too much money to start hodling Bitcoin, any average income earner can start buying Bitcoin in Satoshi, but you need a lot of money to start real estate investment. Starting Bitcoin investment is very easy but real estate requires starting with a lot of money.

all investments come with risks, especially if you bought during the wrong economic period

yes although you bought a property at market rate of $200k but later sell for $400k this can be seen as a capgain of $200k however if you then take out the cap gains tax which in some places can be 40%(chile, turkey) then the ongoing costs you incurred while living in it and the mortgage interest leaves you with no real terms profit

for instance buying on the high where 'comps' of the area have rose way above inflation rate, means you might have bought during the premium at $200k where as your neighbour just 6 months earlier bought the same design suburban home for $150k
and then another neighbour about to sell might be pushing to sell for $180k next month due to wanting to rush a sell to escape the area to look for new work elsewhere

then adding on mortgage interest to your $200 purcshase price, and then if in a hoa having to pay hoa fee's, property taxes, maintenance and such are all an ongoing cost that adds on, which may come to a $400k total cost in many years,
..so you then hope the inflation/comp's continue to rise above the rate of your ongoing extra costs to get you a ROI when its time to sell (emphasis on hope)

risks are things like:
if your neighbour lost their job, house went into foreclosure and then sold at local gov/bank auction at a low price this then sets a 'comp' in your area of a lower amount which then affects your valuation

when nearby workplaces/industry's go bust, it causes alot of unemployment and then people migrate to other neighbouring towns where new work can be found, thus selling down their property to escape the dead town thus reducing the comps and thus affecting the max you can sell for in comparison(mass exodus of people seeking new work in other towns causes your town to become a desolate ghost town)

events like riots, school shootings, vagrancy can cause people to not want property in your area, thus dry up the pool of prospective buyers, causing you to lower your ask price to try to convince buyers

although real estate buyers look at comps as a guide to pricing similar properties.. each property has its own underlying costs and so prices vary.
if 2 neighbours had the same design home but you mortgaged at a period where you are paying 7% interest but your neighbour bought at a 4% interest and so they can afford to sell for less so when you both have a for sale sign and they want to sell for less, the prospective buyer then looking at your property with a higher ask will not pick your property

The dream of every responsible person is to own a home and provides shelter to they family, because that is the primary responsibility of anyone, so who ever at whatever age you can own a house, it something that is worth celebrating and for sure there is a big relief in owning a home which money can not buy most especially when you own the home for your family.

Real estate also as a business is a big investment that billionaires rush into and aside from the profits merging, there is a guarantee of security for the assets and the believe that the value of the property will keep increasing yearly, this is what makes that big difference, Bitcoin on the other hand is a contemporary investment and only for smart people, only a few of investors will believe Bitcoin to be a better investment compared to real estate, because Bitcoin lack physical representations and the risk that comes along with holding Bitcoin compared to the risk of owning an estate, aside from the tax which make the difference.