It depends on where you're buying and/or how much you're borrowing. If married you can borrow up to $750k for write-off purposes. Being close to this means with today's interest rates you'll be paying about $20k-$25k or so in interest payments the first 10 years or so. Couple this with property tax and/or income taxes maxed at 10k and now you're around $35k or so. And perhaps you've made some charitable donations and work from home and now you're looking at $40k. So you need to be on the higher end for it beat out the standard deduction.
Honestly, the tax cuts really benefit people in this situation. Your effective tax rate is much lower than before and although you only get a piece of the property/income tax write-offs, it might make for lower effective taxes.
In terms of buying VS renting, although I bought a home I still think renting makes a whole lot of sense for a lot of people. Buying a home is expensive in terms of furnishing it, customizing it, etc. But also in selling it and related expenses.
Imagine your home can be sold for 900k. Around 6% ($54k) of that is going to be taken away from an agent. You'll probably be buying a new home so you have to factor in closing costs for the new mortgage, assume $15k and then moving expenses, etc and you're looking at $75k-$80k. So unless your home has appreciated to cover these costs, you're losing potentially significant money. A renter doesn't have to face this at all and likely pays less in rent than the mortgage and property taxes would be.
Buying a home makes sense if you plan on living in it 10 years or more in many cases I believe. By then you'll likely get back anything you've put into it and have built decent equity. The best part of buying is that as time goes on, your monthly payment begins to look like a bargain as rents and home prices continue to rise - once again, about 10 years in.