For starters, people don't buy a house to live in solely because of the financials around it. They also buy the house because they want it.
When it comes to mortgage vs. buying outright, it just depends. I managed to get a very low interest rate for my primary home; the money I didn't put into the house is busy making quite a bit more than that very low interest rate for me yearly. If I were to rent out the house, I could probably get more for it than what I'm paying in mortgage interest + property taxes, so renting isn't really better (and then I'd be subject to the rent-jacking whims of my landlord). But even if I couldn't, I still just... want this house to be mine. There's value in that to me.
> if you HAVE to do a mortgage, then its likely that renting will be a better deal for you
This is very regionally-dependent. There are places where rents are significantly more expensive than mortgage payments, and places where homes cost so much that most people rent at a fairly reasonable rate in comparison.
For starters, people don't buy a house to live in solely because of the financials around it. They also buy the house because they want it.
When it comes to mortgage vs. buying outright, it just depends. I managed to get a very low interest rate for my primary home; the money I didn't put into the house is busy making quite a bit more than that very low interest rate for me yearly. If I were to rent out the house, I could probably get more for it than what I'm paying in mortgage interest + property taxes, so renting isn't really better (and then I'd be subject to the rent-jacking whims of my landlord). But even if I couldn't, I still just... want this house to be mine. There's value in that to me.
> if you HAVE to do a mortgage, then its likely that renting will be a better deal for you
This is very regionally-dependent. There are places where rents are significantly more expensive than mortgage payments, and places where homes cost so much that most people rent at a fairly reasonable rate in comparison.