I realise a stock market index fund will perform better than real estate over the long term, but not all real estate is the same. Surely, buying a property in

I realise a stock market index fund will perform better than real estate over the long term, but not all real estate is the same. Surely, buying a property in a vibrant city that is growing and is a nice place to live will likely mean your property value will greatly outpace inflation in the long term? We bought a house over 10 years ago for $361k spending $50k of our own money. We sold it last year for $900k. I don't think it was a terrible investment... Could we have got similar returns by investing $50k in the stock market instead? Remember, the cost to pay off the mortgage is mostly offset by the fact you would otherwise have to pay rent.