Reasons to buy a house

1. Rent it out for 100$ less than the mortgage payment and in a year you can raise it as it appreciates. But the 100$/mo you pay out of pocket will be worth any built up equity.
2. There is always demand for rental property, and if you are 100$ less/mo than the competition, then they will always come to you first and you can choose who you rent to.
3. Fix it up to flip it if you have left over monthly income you can fix it up while living in it. Mostly you just want a house that could just use a good updating and TLC and is in a up and coming good neighborhood, next to a hospital or something. And if you can't sell the house to flip it then just rent it out and wait.
4. If you buy a house in your 20's and somehow never miss a payment over 20 years because you have a secure income, then the appreciation from when you first bought it to 20 years later will be huge. Also rich neighborhoods only turn into richer neighborhoods over time if you're lucky enough to get there before they're a rich neighborhood. Buy multiple houses with the equity from the first, all in different neighborhoods then rent them out, and one is bound to be in a rich neighborhood sooner or later.
5. May just live in the house in the end anyway.
6. Best to start early in the rental business because you will have more profit on the rental price ever year as rental rates go up but your monthly mortgage payment stays the same.
7. $500 per month on a $50,000 house is 12% per year return on investment.
8. I like money more than people now anyway. Think up any evil thing and people have done it, but money buys stuff that can make you happy.
9. They're monetizing the debt which means that it is an absolute certainty that house prices will rise. And as inflation sets in, your mortgage will stay the same price which means you can rent it out cheaply in a year and still make a profit. And because of leverage you will have more equity on money you never spent. Gold has no leverage, so it's not as good of a hedge against inflation.
   

Reasons to not buy a house:

1. Hidden structural flaws that you find out about after buying the house, when you open up the walls.
2. Won't be able to sell the house in this economy(just rent it out)
3. Will be foreclosed upon if you loose your job.
4. Perpetually have to buy stuff for the house.
5. Tenants ruin the house and you can't get the money out of them for repairs.

Here's a good landlord video.