Are there really any downside that outweights the benefits? If so please tell me, because I cannot think of one
Are you speaking in general, as in the thread title? If so, I can share a little bit.
My wife and I had mostly lived in apartments during our early years. Our first place together, however, was a house, rented in the town where I had my first salaried job. It was a good introduction to home ownership with some of the responsibilities but not all. We had to mow the lawn and shovel the driveway, for example. But things like the dishwasher or hot water heater breaking down were the responsibility of the landlord.
After a year, my job disappeared and the house was sold to someone else, so continuing to rent it was no longer an option. We moved to a different state, and found ourselves apartment-hopping for the next ten years. There were utility bills, but no lawn to mow or driveway to shovel. Outside the four walls we rented, there was nothing we were responsible for.
After our second child was born, we finally (with the help of my parents) put money down on a house. Our own space, no neighbors on the other side of the walls, or above us, or below us. And of course, the financial benefit is that that monthly payment is now going towards equity rather than someone else's bank account.
The downside, which I knew about and had had a small taste of, was that
everything is now your responsibility. Not just the lawn and driveway, but the bushes, the trees, the building itself. You paint it, replace the siding, fix the roof. Inside, same thing. You own that dishwasher, hot water heater, washer and dryer, furnace, etc. If anything happens to anything, you fix it, which means you pay for it. You don't have a landlord to call; you are the lord of the land. And of course the expense is on top of your monthly house payments. You put time, effort,
and money into it.
As much as I looked forward to owning my house, and the benefits ultimately do outweigh the downsides, I'm essentially a lazy person. I'd rather sit inside and listen to music, or make music, or play on the computer, while my wife, who is similarly lazy, watches TV. Instead, a fair amount of time must be devoted to yard work and maintenance. It's not just a job, it's an adventure. If there's a downside to home ownership, that's the biggie in my opinion.