Yes, after 30 years, you came out ahead. But also, you can't sell your house when the drain breaks and you need $10,000 today to pay for fixing it. Especially if you just bought the house.
Also, you forgot to account for the $180K in mortgage interest.
My apartment that was $900/month in 2001 is $2200 today. Outside of some of the really stupid markets, it’s almost always better to own. You’ll be fixing that drain every year.
Since we control our mortgage, we paid it off early, at around 15-16 year mark (due to my wife making me realize the importance of it). We live rent and mortgage free the rest of our lives thank God. I only wish I'd kept either of our 2 former houses instead of taking better job offers requiring moving ultimately to the bay area where we couldn't afford to buy a home. Texas is nice though!
My Dad always said, buy a house as soon as you can.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/buy-rent-cal...
In most Bay Area markets, it makes more sense to rent than buy from a purely financial prospective. It's only if you value the ability to modify the home or have a sense of permanence that it starts to flip.
If we sell our home at the end of 30 years for exactly what we bought it for, no raise in value at all, 200K, then 250K of maintenance works out to around $700 per month for each month of those 30 years.
Any amount we can sell the house for over the original $200K price, reduces the taxes and maintenance down from $700 potentially to zero.
If we sell at the end of 30 years for $450K, even accounting for taxes and maintenance, we lived rent free for 30 years.