Yeah, owning your house certainly has value, regardless of the financial impact. Life is all about trade-offs, and it's why I have an e-fund despite investing probably having the better expected outcome.

And the average savings rate is also depressingly low. I'm actually closer to an average retiree than a young hire in terms of total savings, yet I don't feel anywhere close to retirement (and I'm retiring fairly lean @ ~$50k expenses). I just don't see how it works for the average person, and maybe it doesn't, and people just have to drastically adjust expectations in retirement.