By Aglaia Pikounis

Real estate professionals have frequently pushed the idea that owning a home is a good long-term investment. But with housing values plummeting, many people are starting to question whether relying on their homes as investments is really such a good idea.

The Center for Economic Policy Research released a report this week that shows that the housing market downturn, and tanking stock market, have left baby boomers nearing retirement with little or no accumulated wealth.

The co-author of the report said the collapsing housing bubble has destroyed almost $6 trillion dollars in housing wealth for homeowners — Pretty depressing.

But here in Massachusetts, a significant number of homeowners may be better off.

Just about 28 percent of single-family and condo owners in this state don’t even have a mortgage, according to data from The Warren Group. This means that more than 460,000 people who own single-family homes or condos in this state don’t really owe anything on their homes.

I’m guessing that a good portion of these folks are people who’ve owned their homes for a long time and paid off whatever debt was tied to the property. That leaves them in a pretty enviable position, especially in these times when all you hear about are foreclosures, short sales and underwater mortgages.