Hmm. I'll also add that owning a house is not as it once was.
Time was you got tax relief on mortgage interest, and crucially there was enough inflation in the system that a mortgage was an insanely easy choice. A little inflation would deflate your mortgage payment down to truly trivial levels over the life of the mortgage. Because of the removal of inflation your mortgage payment is no longer an ever decreasing proportion of your income, ignoring pay rises, so the only remaining factor is what you believe will happen to rents.
Time was you got tax relief on mortgage interest, and crucially there was enough inflation in the system that a mortgage was an insanely easy choice. A little inflation would deflate your mortgage payment down to truly trivial levels over the life of the mortgage. Because of the removal of inflation your mortgage payment is no longer an ever decreasing proportion of your income, ignoring pay rises, so the only remaining factor is what you believe will happen to rents.