So I’m only ignoring price appreciation because not all markets in Canada are upwards moving and I’m not betting it’s gonna go up or down.
If you bought at the peak then lost your job and had to sell you’d have lost your down payment. The 5x leverage works both ways. Such people weren’t as lucky as you and they do exist.
If prices stagnate and a renter saves more on housing than you pay in equity, at the end of your mortgage, they’d be able to buy your house with their savings and live just as comfortably without paying rental market prices.
So yeah, buying is a far better investment today, only if you bet it’s going to go up. And only if you make enough money (200K to comfortably support the below-median 740K scenario above) so that you’re able to absorb shocks without being forced to sell at an unfavorable time/price. It has been true for a while and if (when) interest rates fall, prices are likely to go up, but that would only happen because it would become cheaper to carry the higher mortgages required to inflate the prices further, because incomes are not rising nearly as fast.
In my opinion (and I think the article’s) buying today with lower income where you have little buffer left after paying those 5K is a recipe for disaster. I would rent when significantly cheaper than buying, buy when similar or cheaper than renting.