In the US I wouldn't call a home a terrible investment. It's not a great one either. The pluses are - tax privileges and the old mantra "you have to live somewhere", but the minuses are property taxes, lack of liquidity, and transaction costs. The problem when evaluating a house as an investment is that there are hundreds of markets, so no rule is good. Washington DC or San Francisco is a far different market than Austin or Dayton, OH.
I would. It's illiquid, not fungible, prone to bubbles, deteriorates all by itself, costs money just to own, laughable transaction costs, massively impractical to sell or buy in convenient units, generates no income (unless you rent it out, but most people don't - they live in it); just an awful investment. I literally struggle to think of another mainstream investment that is this bad.
