Eagh, the leverage really isn't that cheap, and you can think of renting as giving you cheap leverage too (it's just your borrowing the house instead of the money).
It’s really a form of various hedges wrapped up with a bow, that for many people is desirable (and since we HAVE had appreciation it doesn’t “turn out bad” most of the time anyway).
Anyone who says “renting/buying” is the only way to go is missing something.
In particular the interest rate options in foxed mortgages are pretty expensive and it only hedges the cost of a particular house not housing in general.
Housing cost is correlated with local incomes so in some ways it's doubling down. In particular recessions are deflationary in the immediate aftermath.