According to a recent Gallup poll, more Americans are beginning to view real estate as a viable long-term investment. Thirty percent of those surveyed early last month took this view, up from 25% just a year ago. Gallup credited an improving housing market as being the chief driver of the change in popular opinion on this matter.

But, wait. Some experts, notably Yale economics professor Robert Shiller, disagree heartily with this view. In interviews over the past couple of years, Shiller referred to his research in which he studied home price appreciation from 1890 to 1990. He found that, considering costs of construction and inflation, homes really didn’t appreciate in value at all.

Does that mean that buying a home is a lousy move? Not at all, and here’s why…