If you can rent and invest, you can also buy and invest, right? The only way that renting is an investment advantage is the down payment, but you have to subtract your rent from your returns to see if it makes sense. In the example at the top of this thread, 6k/mo rent is 750k over 10 years. You have to have a very large down payment and very good returns consistently for 10 solid years to make that back.