Not always. Sometimes renting might be a better deal than buying.

There are several factors which need to be taken into account, such as mortgage interest payments, opportunity cost of downpayment, property tax, tax deductions, property appreciation, etc. Khan Academy has an interesting video on this topic: https://www.khanacademy.org/economics-finance-domain/core-fi...

PS: Sure, if your property appreciates by a lot you'll make a large return. But what if it deprecates? People being overly optimistic about property appreciations were part of the reason/most affected by the housing bubble.