Not that I disagree with your point, but to finish the conclusion: in the rent scenario you save $12k a year, or about 1.4% of the purchase price.
As the return on investing that $12k will be so low (in dollar terms), it is perfectly rational to own if you believe the condo will increase in value by even a little more than 1.4% per year. And as our government goes out of its way to prop prices up, that seems like a safe assumption over the long term.
I don’t think you are taking into account leverage and the cost of it.
That’s the major difference between stocks and homes. In the first case the government sharply limits private lending, in the second it has nationalized the industry and subsidizes it significantly.
As the return on investing that $12k will be so low (in dollar terms), it is perfectly rational to own if you believe the condo will increase in value by even a little more than 1.4% per year. And as our government goes out of its way to prop prices up, that seems like a safe assumption over the long term.