Isn't that how home ownership was sold to the public in the 2000s? You simply buy a home, use it for a few years and miraculously sell it at a substantial profit. I'm in the middle of a move and one of my coworkers said "Why don't you buy a home when you get there? You'll only be there for two years, but you'll have some equity saved up" as if it was such a simple formula. I had a sizable bite taken out of my rear because I didn't do the math on our purchase the last time I only owned a home for two years.
I think this is how home ownership has been sold to the public since at least the 1970s (and probably going back to the 1950s). The real estate sector is one of the most powerful lobbies in the US, and their marketing-speak has been passed around as universally true, like
buying a home is biggest investment most people ever make and
ownership builds equity while renting is throwing money down the drain. At least in the US its codified by things like the mortgage interest deduction and fixed, federally backed 30y loans. They've pushed numerous studies with questionable conclusions highlighting how neighborhoods with a high percentage of owners have lower crime and higher affluency, while neighborhoods with lots of renters tend to have more crime and (gasp!) have more non-whites.
Most people I know have bought this hook-line-sinker.