One difference is that a house didn't normally cost more than renting. It required the down payment, but after that could very easily be cheaper than renting an

One difference is that a house didn't normally cost more than renting. It required the down payment, but after that could very easily be cheaper than renting and it was its own investment. So you were able to invest in other things while also investing in real-estate. This of course assumes the price of housing is reasonable, but it was for many years and still is in many places. Another big reason to prefer a house is that Apartments are very often not family friendly and have very little sound proofing (to protect others from your crying baby and to keep others from waking your finally sleeping baby).