Why do people buy a house?

Rent increase is a higher risk. I don't want my family to be homeless.

Putting a side the emotional part, a mortgage is one of few avenues for a retail investor to get leverage for their money.

You have already figured out what you want. Why do you care about others?

What is this magic 15% return investment?

Not every body is good with investing or trading. Risk appetite is different for everyone and markets can be volatile

U have to pay taxes on sale of stock , so profit is 2.1 k after taxes. You get tax benefits on buying the house let’s take it 1k. So now the profit is down to 1k 😀. Now in the mortgage payment you are actually building equity which is not the case with rent. Rent always increases but not the mortgage payment. So if you do the math buying is better in your example

You are borrowing money at a low rate from the bank. If you are located in the Bay Area or Seattle, housing has been going up like crazy (15% a year?).

If you could get 15% a year consistently you would be a billionaire... Mortgages allow you to leverage huge amounts of money at a comically low interest rate, receive tax benefits, land is a scare resource, payment is predictable and stable unlike rent, and finally the emotional satisfaction of being able to do whatever you want on your property. If the property appreciatiates in value that is just gravy. Finally no, I hope you never sell any of my houses for money. Tenants pay me each month to live there and hopefully always will. Thank you renters!

1. Wrong assumption that stocks will gain 15%. For example: this year DOW Jones started at 24700 and is currently at 25300. That maps to a gain of 600 over 6 months. So the gain is 2.4% for 6 months. Extrapolating to one year it might be a gain of 5% for this year. 2. Above calculation show that markets are on track to finish at growing 5% for the year. You may argue that it might be more and I can argue that if the market becomes a bear market then instead if 5% gain you might end up in a loss of 10%. Remember that markets are at all time highs and hence the upside potential in bull market is lesser than the downside potential in a bear market. 3. You are forgetting that you will own the house after the mortgage is paid you and in the case if apartment you will own nothing.

Wrt #2 the same bull/bear market observation can be applied to today's housing market as well. Wrt #3 he claims that the difference will go into the stock market. While the assumptions are wildly off, it's not like he will have nothing.