Yes. A home can lose ground in real, inflation-adjusted terms even while its nominal price holds flat or inches up. The mechanics are simple, and treat any figure here as illustrative because nobody can promise where prices or inflation go. Say a home gains 3 percent in a year when inflation runs closer to 8 percent. In real terms the owner lost roughly 5 percent of purchasing power even though the price on paper went up. If inflation cools toward nominal appreciation, real returns land closer to flat. The part that matters more: appreciation is only one component of building wealth through a home, and in soft years it's the component that stalls while the others keep working. - A fixed payment. Principal and interest on a 30-year fixed don't move while rents and prices climb around them, and if rates fall later you have the option to refinance lower. That's an option, never a promise. - Principal paydown. Every payment chips away at the balance, so you build equity even in a flat price year. Real returns are a fair thing to track, but they're one line on the scorecard. In practice almost nobody thinks in pure nominal terms anyway; people intuitively track what their money will actually buy. And most people who become owners, even through a stretch of soft appreciation, have no desire to go back to renting. Buy for the whole package, and judge the purchase on more than a single year's price line.