Aussie.zone is the server that you created your account on, think of it like having a yahoo email address. Some people have Gmail, some have outlook or iCloud, some have their own private domain. It really doesn’t matter too much because everyone can talk to everyone else, generally. Local is just every community hosted on Aussie.zone. All is everyone else and every other community in every other server that Aussie.zone is federated to (hasn’t blocked). Discover ability is certainly a problem and I’ve been here for two years and haven’t figured that out except stumbling on new communities on all just like you. You’ve pretty much got a handle on it it seems, I would just suggest a good client like Voyager to make things more intuitive on touchscreens if that’s what you’re looking for.
Not who you responded to but it depends entirely on the location. In the northeast there is decent and consistent appreciation and there has been for decades because it has always been populated. But home appreciation over 20, 30, or 50 years will struggle to beat the S&P500. Factor in property taxes and upkeep and you may just barely keep up with inflation. Just from inflation $216k in 06 would be $358k in 2025. As an asset its primary function is being a store of wealth that happens to be the roof on your head, something you can refinance to borrow money, and something to sell basically to pay for whatever you downgrade to when you enter the stage of preparing for death, whether it’s a condo or a nursing home.
All the money to be made comes from buying in bulk and renting out to people who cannot afford because everyone bought to rent out, while local government restricts supply through zoning because it would lower property values of everyone who only had their house as retirement because wages have not kept up with productivity or inflation and pensions and unions have been gutted.