Not really "owning" your house

I am in no way qualified to give people financial advice, but it seems to me that many people are simply buying too much house. They have fallen into this trap of their home as their greatest "investment". They end up taking out a mortgage to buy the house. Then they take out a home equity loan to finance day to day expenses because they don't have an adequate cash reserve and are spending too much money on their house. Later in life, they have not saved enough for retirement so they end up with a reverse mortgage. Did they really "own" a house? Was a house really a great investment?