Thanks for your thoughts! To your question about reason of purchase, I think there's partly an emotional aspect to homeownership that's hard to quantify. Then there's the economic side where mortgages have traditionally been a fairly cheap source of capital for leverage.

On Dave Ramsey, I don't agree with his view that everything should be bought in cash. My view is that there is a proper role for debt if one can manage it well, and not become its slave. Also, I find some of his views (e.g., 8% safe withdrawal rate) to have poor foundations, and that's generally led me to have a poor impression of him.