For me it's the fact that hopefully one day I pay off the mortgage so that when I am eventually forced to stop working due to my body breaking down I have somewhere to stay and all I have to worry about is home insurance, occasional maintenance and property taxes instead of paying all that plus forever rent to a landlord. The landlord can also up the rent at lease renewal time, or just decide not to renew the lease.

Even if somehow I find a place that has rent the same price as a mortgage (lol) and shove the remainder into the market there is no way the market somehow doesn't crash right as I can't work and I'm screwed anyways. The main thing about owning a house is stability, and it's not as risky as the market.