We disagree.

My primary residence will be paid off in short order. It would have been long ago, except in 2008 we bought a bigger house, intending to sell the other house. Instead, we ended up keeping it and renting it out, so a bunch of my equity is in there. Neither of my houses is worth a lot, because I live in an inexpensive area. However, I'm very much looking forward to the time when I have NO HOUSE PAYMENT and a modest amount of monthly profit on the rental house. I did not buy it originally for rental property, and I can only charge about as much my expenses are, so I won't be able to make a profit until it's paid off. (And currently my adult son is renting it, and I'm obviously not trying to squeeze extra money out of my kid). I've purchased four houses in my lifetime, the first when I was quite poor, in 1990. I would be absolutely screwed if I had not stretched myself to start building equity when I was young.