> For example, you might consider buying a house in the current, highly uncertain housing market: You really want the house but envision yourself in a few years, having bought right at the top of the market, just before a real-estate bubble bursts; then you imagine yourself struggling with the equity in your home being worth less than the value of your mortgage. So you rent for another year

What kind of struggle?

In this example, you bought that home because you wanted to live in it, not for generating income. Why would you even care about some abstract worth that other people are randomly assigning to it?