Stock Market or Real Estate

...which to invest in? People make money in real estate investments every day AND people make money in the stock market every day. Also true is the opposite. Real estate took a long rise up over the last few years and people made a lot of money. The real estate market that most people talk about is single family residential. In growth areas, these new homes kept rising in value. Now the pendulum is swinging back. The stock market also has made huge increases this year. Does it keep going forever - please know the answer is no. Divercity is tauted as the answer. I say quality is a better answer - both in property and in stocks. Google, Yahoo, HP - all strong performers which will weather the storms. San Francisco, Phoenix, Denver, Los Angeles - also strong metros that will stay healthy long term. Not necessarily their suburbs - those areas are like the front and the back of the roller coaster - more excitement - more green faces. Same goes for growth stocks, small cap stocks, emerging markets, etc. Stay in the middle, stay in quality - do better.