For all the American talk about creating wealth via your home, we've mostly outlawed the historical paths for doing so: living above your shop, hosting boarders, tearing down your house and replacing it with a bigger building when urban development reached you. Instead you're probably living in a single-family zone: no business allowed, no boarders allowed, no apartments allowed.
https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2015/12/14/best-of-2015-the-gentrification-paradox
https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2015/12/14/best-of-2015-the-gentrification-paradox