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If you have public REITs active nearby you can do this comparison for real: if you buy ~1 unit's value in shares of that landlord you will probably own about 1/<however many units they operate> of the company and receive someplace around the rent of that unit in dividends and capital gains.

The government subsidies for investing in the stock market are also pretty nuts, and the TCJA hosed owner-occupants by limiting the interest deduction, the gains exclusion, and raising the standard deduction.

If you invest you get to deduct any interest against investment gains (even better: you can just not pay any interest), you pay ZERO capital gains taxes on up to ~$80,000 of (real!) contributions each year (with no maximum excluded gains), you can defer $22,000 of (real!) income to literally whenever, AND you can take the standard deduction every year (including in retirement when you wouldn't have had any income to deduct had you paid off a house).