Just from a numbers perspective, I think you can make a really solid case for renting vs. buying. We bought our house about five years ago and refinanced when rates were near the bottom. Ultimately, we bought our house and land so that we and our kids could grow up raising animals, gardening, and hunting and fishing right out the back door. It was a dream that we were extremely lucky to realize, but I seriously doubt it will gain *useable value at the pace of a decent stock portfolio. We knew going into the deal that we would have to sacrifice vacations and luxuries for several years in order to make it all work, but we were happy to make that trade.
*Keep in mind that in order to capitalize on market growth you have to sell. Most people will buy another home in the same market. That means you need to buy a cheaper/less desirable house when you sell the one that gained value. That isn't appealing to most people.
That’s what’s funny about everyone who “moved up” during Covid. Yes rates low but prices were so high it was a wash at best in most cases. I have 250k+ “equity” in my current home. Even if I sold and bought during the low rates only thing moving up would be the balance I owe and my property taxes. Didn’t make sense then and certainly doesn’t make sense now. I’ll pay it off in 8 years by 40 and determine what I want to do then pending where the market is.
My house was built in 2013 and sold for $104/sqft then, I bought in 2018 at $170/sqft, and now county appraises me at $267/sqft for property taxes. Even though I won’t realize any of those gains unless I ever sell. Still glad I bought in 2018 even when I thought I over paid then.