[Clanan]

I think the bigger lesson here is that we need to stop assuming real estate is a guaranteed return on investment. How long have we collectively held this assumption? I have no evidence for this but I assume it was pushed by realtors over time, similar to how they redefined "the American dream" to mean owning a home.

Your situation doesn't require the explanation of a zero-sum game. The simpler explanation is that you purchased a bad investment which yielded a negative return.