Houses typically appreciate at better than 4% a year over 20 year time frames, although this is very location dependent. If they had bought in almost any city i

Houses typically appreciate at better than 4% a year over 20 year time frames, although this is very location dependent. If they had bought in almost any city in the US with a population over a million they could have done much better. http://www.census.gov/const/uspriceann.pdf http://www.census.gov/const/uspriceann.pdf