I'm not an expert on real estate, but some of what I've read suggests that your statement is an oversimplification, assuming you have a mortgage and are paying interest on it.

Since I'm annually paying around 3% of the market price of my apartment, and you're paying X% interest annually on your mortgage (minus tax breaks, but plus maintenance costs, etc.), there is some value of X at which I'm not really losing much money by renting, right?

http://patrick.net/housing/crash1.html