The baby boomers had an additional pension for their retirement, it was their home.  They paid their mortgage, as they paid the bank their equity increased. It was as if they had an additional stock market account.  The piece of the American Dream increased as the housing boom took hold.  The stockmarket has cycles and now comes the housing downturn so, the value of their homes is diminishing too.  There are definite differences between the value of your stock market account and your home.  First, the market fluctuates daily whiles homes are affected by the same economic conditions, values do not change drastically overnight.  And, you can sell a stock over the Internet in a matter of minutes you can't do that with your home today.  The premise of the article in today's Wall Street Journal defines the differences for us read, Why Your Nest Is Not Your Next Egg.