Keep in mind that with a mortgage you're still renting -- you're just renting money instead of the house. I know this is a simplified view, but some of your poi

Keep in mind that with a mortgage you're still renting -- you're just renting money instead of the house. I know this is a simplified view, but some of your points (e.g., profit for the landlord) have equivalents for a mortgage (profit for the bank, via interest). Also, you're going to be paying for maintenance in either case. In the case of owning it may not be literally baked into your mortgage payment, but that doesn't mean you're not going to be responsible for repairs on your own house. Also, keep in mind that a landlord isn't entitled to profit just because they're attempting to make a profit. It is entirely possible (and it does happen in reality) that a certain rental market is such that the landlord will not be able to turn a profit or may in fact even lose money. Being a landlord is just like any other business -- it can fail. Finally, rental markets are often just different. Here in Houston, I could not buy an apartment like the one I rent for the same price that I pay. There aren't many condo buildings for one thing, and the ones that do exist charge exorbitant monthly maintenance fees. These fees would bring the monthly cost of owning such a condo to about $500-$1000/month more than what I currently pay in rent. At the same time, any townhouse or SFH that I might buy which is larger than what I rent is naturally going to cost more -- often times significantly more. In other words, the rental market sometimes has options that don't exist in the for-sale market. (The opposite is of course true as well.)