Home ownership has created wealth for two independent reasons: 1. In many markets in the US housing has been a good investment (for a bunch of reasons too long

Home ownership has created wealth for two independent reasons: 1. In many markets in the US housing has been a good investment (for a bunch of reasons too long to discuss here). 2. Owning a home with a mortgage on it forces the owner to "put money in savings" each month as they pay down principal on the loan. The rent v. own discussion is a complex financial decision. If you buy a house with 20% down you're using 5:1 leverage. Even in historically strong housing markets if you put the same amount of principal into a 5:1 levered SP500 you'd have made much more money buying stocks than you would that home. So if your rent = interest + maintenance and you could afford to invest the same in principal in equities you'd do much better. Now I don't know any investment advisor who would tell a client (and I'm not one at all so take my advice for what it is -- the thoughts of a business person) to go all in on a 5x leveraged equity portfolio.