I'm not going to make an argument for or against owning real property, but you need to do better financial math if you want to make a argument from economics.
a) You want to have two (or more, potentially) scenarios to choose from. Maybe Option 1: rent for X years (with assumptions) vs Option 2: purchase a house for X years and then sell it (with assumptions). In both situations you start with no housing, and end with no housing, and you can compare the financial state after X years. Or maybe you don't care about your housing, so you could do Option 1: purchase a house and rent it to someone for X years, then sell the house vs Option 2: do nothing for X years vs Option 3: invest the starting funds from Option 1 in a S&P500 fund for X years and then sell it. Again, you'll be in the same situation after X years, except with more or less cash.
b) If you're going to compare dollars, you need to cast them all to the same time frame. Today's dollars and next year's dollars are not comparable units, because of time value of money. This requires assumptions about appropriate rates. Look into net present value.
a) You want to have two (or more, potentially) scenarios to choose from. Maybe Option 1: rent for X years (with assumptions) vs Option 2: purchase a house for X years and then sell it (with assumptions). In both situations you start with no housing, and end with no housing, and you can compare the financial state after X years. Or maybe you don't care about your housing, so you could do Option 1: purchase a house and rent it to someone for X years, then sell the house vs Option 2: do nothing for X years vs Option 3: invest the starting funds from Option 1 in a S&P500 fund for X years and then sell it. Again, you'll be in the same situation after X years, except with more or less cash.
b) If you're going to compare dollars, you need to cast them all to the same time frame. Today's dollars and next year's dollars are not comparable units, because of time value of money. This requires assumptions about appropriate rates. Look into net present value.