Is it always less risky? What happens when the price of apartments triples or quadruples over the years but your income stagnates or even goes down? You’d better have rent control, which is generally a bad economic policy overall, and you’d better love your apartment because you will be stuck there. When I lived in SF, many of my older neighbors were in this situation.

If you own and can afford your fixed-rate mortgage, you are much less likely to be in this situation, or worse, homeless.