One of the most attractive aspects of residential real estate investing, compared to other types of investments, is its stability. In the stock market, for example, you can instantly buy and sell all or portions of your holdings. This is great if you need to move fast, but it results in massive market shifts just as fast. As recent events have indicated, the stock market can easily go up or down 5% or 10% in a day, and individual stocks can gain or plummet much more.

The real estate market is intentionally designed to reduce volatility. Prices go up and down over time, but the process of purchasing or selling real estate is much more deliberate, and protects the larger investment.

The system has worked for a long time. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average home value has increased about 6%/year since the middle of the 20th century (*). That's pretty stable, and impressive!

(*) https://www.census.gov/construction/nrs/historical_data/index.html