On: Home ownership is still mostly renting

[dsizzle]

Do you mean 5X? I believe 20% down is more common. If you do only put down 5% you'll also have PMI on top of interest.

That said, your point stands that it's easy to get low interest leverage.

Another related point that I think is implicit in your comment is that you win even if home values only keep up with inflation (what you'd expect with a healthy home supply).

[kindle-dev → dsizzle]

I believe the average down payment on a house for first time buyers is around 5% these days (in the US): https://www.bankrate.com/mortgages/how-much-is-a-down-paymen...

[dsizzle → kindle-dev]

Looks like the answer is in the middle of our guesses: your link says the median down payment is 12% for all buyers.