A few years ago, the galloping stock market promised to put a Hummer in every garage and lower the retirement age to 37. Today, with real estate prices soaring, refinances booming and mortgage rates skimming bottom, Americans look at their homes rather than their tech stocks as gold-stuffed pinatas aching to be whacked. "People are watching their home values," says Burton Jablin, president of home-and-garden network HGTV, "like they used to watch their 401(k)s." Call it a testament to the resilience of the American Dream, or at least the American Pipe Dream. The get-rich-quick fantasy is dead! Long live the get-rich-quick fantasy!
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