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As redpoint said the key thing about owning over renting is that you lock in the largest part of your housing cost for decades. A mortgage is the equivalent of rent. Rent only goes one direction - up - relentlessly year after year. A 30 year fix mortgage is just that - fixed for 30 years and then the "rent" part of the monthly budget disappears forever.
Houses may or may not appreciate in value but the primary purpose of a house is shelter not an investment.
Reading through my grandmother's diaries she was SO happy and proud when she bought her trailer home. She finally OWNED something of her own instead of renting and moving all the time. However, she made the regrettable decision to put that trailer home in a trailer park instead of on her own land so she really didn't get away from renting. From the day she moved into the park until the day that she died that lot rent went up and up squeezing her very modest budget.
She never truly owned her home nor felt the financial security of knowing that she had a place to live no matter what.
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