People need to live somewhere. You're either gradually buying yourself property or you're gradually buying your landlord property. Your scared friends weren't saving that money. They were just paying rent instead of making mortgage payments. If you're referring to the down payment, the only economic difference between holding $X in cash versus holding $X in home equity is home equity is going to appreciate faster in most decades. They're certainly punished even more by inflation, but they were already being punished.