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> rate of return the money you would otherwise use for the down payment

Really the most important number, but all of these suggestions are crucial to the calculation. Money that doesn't get invested in a house gets invested in other things. Pretend it's in an index fund.

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But when you take out a morgage you can leverage 800k of the banks money at negative real interrst rates, effectively paying you tens of thousands over the course of the loan and any appreciation of that asset gets multiplied by 5x on your initial down payment.

Negative because the loan interest rate is below inflation?

Yup, mortgages are around 3% and the fed rate is near 0 for the next year or 2. If inflation averages over 3% per year, you are getting paid the difference to borrow.

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