I look at it differently. As long as real estate price increase at the interest rate (not a sure thing for sure) then there owning of the home is a net wash in the long run.
The operating expenses of the house (Tax, insurance, maintaince) are the real short term living expenses
So when people say "you pay 200k in interest over 25 years" my answer is "what's your point?" As long as the long term real estate price increase matches the interest rate I pay, in the long run it doesn't matter if I borrow 300k or 600k
The other issue on the rent vs own, is the saved money doesn't actually go to savings or other investments, because people are not disciplined. Owning your home forces you to pay the mortgage. This does build real equity.
I believe in most normal real estate markets you will always end up with a larger net worth of you were to rent and invest all the savings from renting. But how many actually are discipline enough to do that?
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