I guess it is a varying thing. Where I am from, the housing market in basically any place that isn’t super remote is already insane, buying basically any property in the region I am living in currently would cost me about 80% of my money as a down payment. I would have to work for about another decade just to get back to the same amount of savings, but the housing market is so crazy that I really have no idea where it will be a decade from now, there is a very real possibility of a collapse that will devalue the property. The advantages of renting for me are basically:
I am okay with extremely tiny homes, so I am able to rent an apartment that was illegally split and because it is tiny the rent is very low (and no roommates which is great) (my current place is 15m² or 160ft² or 1.2 Cybertrucks or 5 golf carts or 1200 big macs)
I am still not settled on which region I want to live in for the long term, so renting gives me the flexibility to move as I need
Being a landlord sucks and I don’t want to do that
my current savings being invested make significantly more revenue than any rent I would be able to take from any property within my price range.
The stock market is low commitment and variable in both size and risk of investment. If I fear that there might be a financial collapse soon I can sell my stocks and buy something else (other stocks, gold, monero, cash, etc) while if a housing crisis seems to start, selling my house would take weeks-months.
If somehow I find myself really settling down in a specific area, and find a really good deal, I still might do it, but I really really doubt, it will only happen if it is a really good deal on a place that I really want to live in.
I guess it is a varying thing. Where I am from, the housing market in basically any place that isn’t super remote is already insane, buying basically any property in the region I am living in currently would cost me about 80% of my money as a down payment. I would have to work for about another decade just to get back to the same amount of savings, but the housing market is so crazy that I really have no idea where it will be a decade from now, there is a very real possibility of a collapse that will devalue the property. The advantages of renting for me are basically:
If somehow I find myself really settling down in a specific area, and find a really good deal, I still might do it, but I really really doubt, it will only happen if it is a really good deal on a place that I really want to live in.