Because you, as someone who is buying a $500k house with 20% down in 2025, are going to have much higher costs than your landlord, who bought it for $100k in 19

Because you, as someone who is buying a $500k house with 20% down in 2025, are going to have much higher costs than your landlord, who bought it for $100k in 1995 and has already paid it off. Bake in the fact that many rented houses today were either purchased or refinanced with the historic-low interest rates of ~2021, and there is really just a time difference between someone with pre-existing capital to invest years ago that you didn't have.