Now, one could argue we’re at the peak of the current business cycle and asset prices are overly inflated. And there might be merit to that. In that case, look for real estate bargains where you’ll have equity on day one (short sales, foreclosures, assets priced below their fair market value).
That's only true if the value of your portfolio or salary aren't increasing faster than the market.
I've personally teared up in housing about every other year. It would have been much more difficult to do this is I owned rather than rented.
What does this mean? Moved? Every two years? Sounds horrible. Don't you have any hobbies to fill your time?
Yes, moved every two years. Not ideal, but couldn't have afforded the places I moved into two years earlier and moving produces high quality of life gain.
Maybe it's years living in substandard student housing, or years in "not-in-the-US" housing, or even a couple of years being effectively homeless, but anytime I get more situated than living out of one suitcase and one computer bag, I find moving to be a burden that (generally) outweighs what you call the quality-of-life gain. That's me, and I'm probably inertia oriented in everything except the companies I start/assist/work-for. I love tuning the business to be better. But I often just go home, maybe to a dump or dive, and open a can of tuna fish for dinner. (My kids don't seem to understand that either - so I'm guessing this isn't normal)
EDIT: My (now) ex-wife lives in a nice house, with a fair number of upgrades, in a nice neighborhood. And my kids get to live there too - nice schools too. So, that's nice. But I don't think it is anything I would have ever invested in or developed for myself without her prodding. (Which might be why she divorced me, but I suspect it was probably slightly more complicated than that. But, still, it probably should have been enough!)