[thaeli]

Owner-occupied is kind of a special case, too, because you've got to live somewhere. You could be paying $X to rent, or $X+Y as a mortgage plus upkeep, so the additional "investment" you're making is just $Y. In some cases rents are so high that, especially if you stay in one place a long time, you're actually paying $X-Y to own, so there's a positive return every month in addition to the equity you're accruing. Yeah, this is a horribly broken system, but it does seem to be how things work.