It’s a uniquely American (which can include Canada) situation - some very nice places to live have extremely strong rental inversion markets; where it costs $4k a month to rent a place that would easily have $10k a month in mortgage and property tax.

Landlords are willing to “subsidize” renters because appreciation has been so high. But it’s really only terribly high when leveraged and often the accounting is soft.

The buy/rent discussion isn’t a clear cut one, and it’s more than financial, but it’s certainly not a “buying always wins” scenario as many seem to think it is.