Home ownership is a half baked savings and stability plan for the undisciplined middle class that would not otherwise have a high enough savings rate to last them for their whole life - and they pay the penalty for it with smaller rates of return on investment.
Reminder, rent usually goes up and your mortgage doesn't unless you have a variable interest rate loan and depending on the time of when you get the variable mortgage the expected value of paying shouldn't be going up.
But also important to remember that your maintenance costs and property taxes do and should go up (California hopefully soon no longer an exception). Those costs alone could exceed my annual rental costs in a better location before accounting for commuting costs, opportunity costs, and liquidity costs.
