It should be more expensive to gain equity in a scarce asset than to rent. And this is with US subsidy of fixed rate loans.

I would really like to see performance of investing in bitcoin the saved difference from renting compared to the small monthly equity gains from owning. Considering compounded interest of mortgages will eat into your real estate valuation gains and bitcoin's current growth in buying power, the two strategies could be pretty close. Time for an excel sheet.

This is the most fascinating market, to me, right now. It's clear that something unsustainable is going on, which means something is going to change.

It looks like rent is spiking to close the gap with mortgage payments. I was expecting mortgage payments to fall towards rent, so I still don't have the situation figured out.

Should I rent or buy a house? The answer to this question depends largely on the individual or family's circumstances, needs, and financial situation. When starting this process, many other questions arise, along with all the uncertainties that it entails. Should I stay in the area where I currently live? Will I need more rooms for a possible family expansion? Do I have a stable source of income? Will I be able to progress in my career and have to move to another city? Will I have unexpected expenses? The questions are endless... There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this situation, nor is there a manual that can answer all of these questions for you.

That first graph has my head spinning. How is it that most of the time, renting is cheaper than owning? That doesn't even make any sense, but there it is.

If you can afford the down payment and monthly payments then you should buy

I don't know for a fact, but my guess would be that it takes time for the rental market to catch-up to the owneship market - housing prices could run away over the course of a summer (see: 2020-2021), but rent for a given unit usually get reset once per year, and if you have good tenants there is incentive to not run up the rent too much to scare them away - so a given rental unit could stay in the same price range for several years, depending on the circumstances.

I think there are a lot of benefits to home ownership, if you plan to stay put for 10+ years - But one thing that most people don't consider, when buying a house, is the property taxes. That is an additional cost, you will pay every month forever and it will continue to go up, in dollars, forever.

I'm not in the market for a home right now, but when I was, I searched online for something like "rent vs buy calculator". Look at a couple of these, see what factors they include in their calculations.

It's definitely different for different areas.

Looks like 2010-2020 was an anomaly. Probably when most of us bought our houses too. It will be difficult to shift a generational mindset to the new paradigm.

Get to know local people in an area. Ask these questions. Find out their histories. Generally this topic is too vague for an international or even national discussion. The area makes a big difference.

This is why central planning is ignorant.