[techsupporter]

Yep. I own where I live in Seattle and some of my younger-than-me friends and colleagues are routinely "you're so lucky, you're sitting on a gold mine!"

Maybe so, but the sizzling hot housing market means I can't ever move to another place I own because, like you said, I'd have to take all of that appreciation and plow it right back into another property. Never mind that anything north of the ship canal is still completely unaffordable by my standards (that is, $450k or less, which is still a staggering sum of money in my world).

I'd much rather do like the grandparent and have those gains as actual money in a 401k, not theoretical money in a house that I'd have to practically leave the time zone to realize.