I am talking specifically about: a $750K house in San Francisco, bought at a time when the market has recently dropped ~15%, holding for 5 years, and with 15% down. That still does not qualify as 'always', but it seems to be very improbable that you wont be able to sell (w/o loss or default) in that case. It's not a 0% chance, but as I said in the edit to my original comment, buying a house is risky, but with risk comes reward.