I would bet that housing for almost everyone on this blog represents an opportunity cost, whether they are renting or paying a mortgage or debt free. Anyone who has more roof over their heads than a shack with a toilet and a sink is paying an opportunity cost. It is easier to swallow that opportunity cost, as sdrealtor says, when it is on paper, the inflated value of it was a gift anyway and keeping the property in the face of depreciation is offset by several other factors, some of them economic.