Are you buying a house or lottery ticket?

The same week legendary investor Warren Buffett put his California vacation house on the market , a friend told me her widowed mother had sold the family home in Cleveland.

The solution isn't necessarily to buy into hot markets, since predicting which markets will outperform in the long run is pretty much impossible, says David Blitzer, managing director at S&P Dow Jones Indices, which publishes the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Indices.

Homes can offer tax breaks for mortgage interest, property taxes and capital gains, since the first $250,000 of home sale profit per owner typically is exempt from taxes.

[...] homes also come with considerable costs that can't be deducted, including insurance, maintenance, repairs and upgrades (though improvements can reduce the possible tax bill if you sell at a big profit).

Buying a home and paying down a mortgage can be a kind of forced savings that results in at least some equity, regardless of market conditions.

[...] most people should be wary of advice that encourages them to "stretch" to buy a house or view their home as an investment.

"Buy your house for what you need for your family," says certified financial planner Tim Obendorf of Chicago.