[cts1]

I agree that you are paying the $5000 rent whether or not you own the house - but with ownership you have also levered your downpayment through the mortgage no? Is it better to use your downpayment to get that leverage or to invest in the stock market with no leverage (assuming some fixed positive return on each asset)? How much higher do stock market returns have to be over real estate for stocks to come out ahead? Has someone modeled this out or written about it? I've been wondering about this for a while and considered trying to model it myself but I don't understand all the other factors so not confident I could do it correctly.