This is a really great point. I think many people buy homes because it is that thing they have to keep up with their neighbors/peers. On the other hand, owning

This is a really great point. I think many people buy homes because it is that thing they have to keep up with their neighbors/peers. On the other hand, owning your own property empowers you in ways that should not be discounted. To give simple example, consider the problem of "gentrification." This happens when there is a poor neighborhood that over time attracts a young, usually creative crowd. This leads to pressure for housing there, that in turn leads to speculators and developers who improve/replace buildings further driving the process until the character of the neighborhood is totally changed. This is a pattern that people observe over and over again. This process is at its worst when the original neighborhood has few or no owner occupants. In these situations there is little to stop a developer from being able to go through and completely change the character of the neighborhood en masse and overnight. Worst of all, the original residents don't benefit form this process-- their rent rises and when they stop being able to afford living there, they have no choice but to leave. On the other hand, when there is a mix of ownership and rentership in the neighborhood the gentrification process proceeds much more slowly and in a way that benefits the original residents who, if they choose to leave, enjoy a profit in the sale, not steadily increasing rents.