you definitely came ahead by not buying and you did the math. Good for you!

Generally, this holds true today for most HCOL and MCOL areas. It is still a good idea to buy in a few LCOL areas.

What I have seen is that in high-earner areas (Bay area for example) buying completely outpaces renting in cost (buy to rent ratio_. Mainly because the pool of buyers outbid each other. This is mainly due to the narrative and social pressure to buy at all cost. Similarly, renting stays relatively low as people do not compete as much.