Owning rental real estate beats index funds for building wealth, even after property taxes and repair bills eat into your returns. I bought a duplex in 2019 for $310,000; rent now covers the mortgage plus about $400 a month, but a new roof set me back $11,000 last spring. Plenty of landlords I know in Austin and Phoenix swear the leverage and depreciation make the math work, yet a friend who put the same $60,000 down payment into a total-market fund has a bigger balance today. I'm not certain property appreciation repeats the last decade.