You could argue that this is exactly what you're doing when you buy a house. You're more or less borrowing money to invest it in real estate. I think the problem is borrowing money for risky purposes (which btw seems to be the scenario for about 50% of gangster related movies)
It's only the same if you buy the house purely to re-sell it later. Most people live in the houses they buy, so they extract value out of it that a bank wouldn't, even if they don't earn more when they sell it.
