Comment by carabiner

The thing is you still "throw money away" in owning a home through maintenance, see the 5% rule: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uwl3-jBNEd4. There are large, unrecoverable costs in upkeep of a home. You will have to replace the roof in 15-20 years, just to have it not go to crap. That's $20k with no actual improvement to the home. Plumbing, outdoor siding, and so on. These would normally be covered by rent.