Actually they are good investments if you go into it with the idea of living in it for 10-15yrs, if you buy a house strictly expecting to flip it in 5yrs for a profit then you are fooling yourself and watching too many of those house flipper shows.

Here is a couple good articles on this very same thought process and how more people fail with this idea than succeed with it.

http://m.fool.com/personal-finance/h...nvestment-ever

http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate...ou-think-it-is

http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/0...an-investment/