There are a number of benefits of owning your own home and not all of them are tax breaks and building of equity.

Homeowners also enjoy many social benefits.  They tend to be more active in their community due to the greater financial stake they have in their neighborhoods.  Because home owners are more involved, they tend to form relationships with other home owners as well as business owners.

With homeownership also comes stability, according to the US Census from 2005 to 2006 only 7.1% of homeowners moved.  This is way less than the 30.2% of renters that move.   It only tends to reason that the longer you live in a community the more involved that you will become.