The person was commenting on renting vs owning, so I assumed they were talking about the house they lived in (vs renting it out to someone else). When comparing

The person was commenting on renting vs owning, so I assumed they were talking about the house they lived in (vs renting it out to someone else). When comparing the costs of renting to owning, the "extra" costs of owning a house (taxes, maintenance, insurance, etc) add up to a considerable sum, generally.