We’re just simplifying it. If you buy a home, your costs are more than just the down payment - you have to pay all those other things. But you get the use of the house. If you rent instead of buying, you get to put your down payment into the market instead of putting it in the house - but then you have to pay rent somewhere.
So intercst and I were just talking about what happens to the asset that gets invested (the down payment going into the house vs. the market), and setting aside any discussion of those other costs. If one type of investment absolutely crushed the other, then you don’t need to get very granular in looking at the other annual costs when making the comparison. But you generally get the same return on the down payment money whether you put it in the house or the market, so whether to rent or buy isn’t a no-brainer - it very much depends on all the specific costs and benefits of both.