In my country the rent has usually been more expensive than the cost to service a mortgage (particularly taking into account only the interest repayments, not the principal repayments).
Mortgages are one of the only easy ways to leverage 5x for the average person, and over the course of 30 years you can expect to be earning more (inflation of your salary) whereas the mortgage stays the same.
Rent, on the other hand, typically rises in proportion to your income, so your cost are increasing each year. With a mortgage, your costs are either the same or decreasing if you repay the mortgage faster than the initial term.
Where I'm from, interest and dividends from other forms of investments are taxed as income, but repaying your mortgage is not. In addition, as long as it continues to be a desirable place to live and incomes keep rising, real estate prices will continue to rise as a function of income. This means that you're leveraging into a fairly low risk asset with good growth potential, and tax-free returns.
Plus all the intangibles, like being able to:
- Have as many pets as you want, or pets at all - Not be kicked out with a short amount of notice - Redecorate, put pictures up, improve the house as you please - No 3-monthly house inspections
I'm not saying home ownership is a panacea but it has a lot of positives over renting, both financially and otherwise.