As someone who has both owned multiple residences and rented multiple residences, I can confirm that ownership brings substantial happiness and renting brings substantial stress. The primary exception is when renting is cheap, but that is no longer the case since raises do not keep up with rents. With ownership, particularly in the absence of a mortgage, one can just choose to not have a job for long stretches, and this is basically impossible when renting unless one is exceedingly wealthy. As such, the clause that a mortgage adds unhappiness is an important one.