Building equity has opportunity cost. There's little financial incentive to pay off a mortgage unless the ROI elsewhere is less than the mortgage rate.

I think this a piece that a lot of people miss. Last year I was spending about 1.8k a month in rent. Now I pay 1.9k for a mortgage of which 300 (and increasing) goes directly into home equity. Once home equity comes into the equation it becomes pretty basic math

Yes, but what about property taxes, maintenance, transaction costs (6% to sell!) and opportunity cost of your down payment.

I've run the number in the past and in some markets it's clearly cheaper to own than rent (typically where there is slow but steady increases in prices - mid-west US). For other markets, you need 3-5% asset price increases just to break even with renting after 10 years (bay area).

My landlord was definitely losing money (on a cash flow basis) renting to me in Toronto -- rent did not cover mortgage interest + condo fees + property tax.

He was just gambling on real estate appreciation and using me to cover most of his carrying costs; I would rather gamble on stocks.

usually investment expenditures can be tax deducted, so your landlord is also using this expense as a way to lower his tax rate. It's effectively transferring income tax into capital gains tax (which presumably is lower and more efficient).

By making the rent slightly lower, the landlord is sure to get a renter to cover most of the costs. But if the economic situation declines (or interest rates rises), he can just bump up the rent to cover the increase.