You are wrong on the whole wealth issue. If you are are renting, then you are paying significantly less than a morgage. If you don't have a morgage, you can p

You are wrong on the whole wealth issue. If you are are renting, then you are paying significantly less than a morgage. If you don't have a morgage, you can put a bunch of extra cash into investments that make more money than housing "investment". And once that stock market investment increases, you can spend all that extra money you got on anything you want. You could even use it to buy a house! Probably even a bigger or more valuable house than if you "invested" in a morgage years ago.