I agree Dr. Conway.  That mentality is really pushed though. Not just through the real estate busness but through many cultural and consumer oriented fare.  Just watch any home reno show and your more then likely going to hear, this reno is going to increase the resale value of your home ot don't do this because it will make your house harder to sell in the future.  I know for instance that kitchens and bathrooms sell houses because I'm told that even by the service rep at my local home improvment store.   "You want to paint your kitchen pink with yellow polkadots?  Are you insane? Don't you know what that will do to it's value?"  But *I* like pink with yellow polka dot, it's my 'home'.     I exagerate somewhat but not really that much.   The idea that your not just renoing for yourself but for all the people that will come after you is such a common refrain that it's basically part of the 'common sense' of renoing and decorating to the point where it's all part of the calculations about deciding whether this stove, vanity or type of sink will be worth it or not.  

  A house is no longer a home it's an investment that one just passes through on the way to something else.  

 I ran into this when I was buying a house.  I actually didn't go with the first real estate agent I saw and talked too,   because he couldn't get past looking at from this point of view and actually argued that my view on the criteria that I was looking for was just going to get me into trouble with my future house market viability.  Not the exact words and he was very polite about it but that was basically it.  So buying a fixer upper was on really viable and smart is the costs of fixing it came in under whatever the future market value would be with those costs, doing anything otherwise, I was an idiot.  One of the things I really wanted was land where I could grow things and had specific crietera about what that land should consist of, the house was only one priority and not even the main one.  I got a real nice talking to about 'values' and the resalability of those types of improvements being pretty much nil in the market.  I would spend more then I could get back blah blah.     Yes I know all that thank you but I'm buying a HOME where I am going to actually LIVE. Yeesh. 

Anyways the guy I eventually worked with understood  and didn't treat me as if I was some sort of ignorant loon for not caring so much about what was going to happen when and if  I sold it in some unknown future.  I really could care less what the current land value is because the land I'm on has value that currently isn't as recognized as valuable in that market.