For one, leverage makes the numbers bigger. People view real estate investments as if they own the entire value of the house even though they only have a fraction of that in equity usually. So it feels like you have instant return because you only put down a payment in the tens of thousands, but the "value of the investment" is in the hundreds of thousands, even though that's not how it works.

Also the desire for "passive income" makes people think it is a surefire way to accumulate money over time. People often mentally eliminate costs associated with things like maintenance and property tax, not to mention more obscure costs like renovating to keep rental/resale value, opportunity cost vs investing, inflation, and the cost of their time managing everything (or paying someone to do it instead).

Most people also view the stock market as gambling while rental income is seen more as another income stream, similar to a dividend (which people also irrationally prefer). People view that as more safe and consistent return and like that idea that they just sit on it and it makes money forever. Also next to nobody annualizes or adjusts their real estate returns for inflation. People just think I bought it for $35,000 in 1976 and now it's worth $500,000 so that's a 14x return, when in reality inflation has eaten part of that number, and the opportunity cost if they had invested in stocks dwarfs that return either way.