[nnutter]

I've always thought the point of owning a home is so that you have a place to live that is paid off when you retire. From what I've seen renting usually costs more than the mortgage + property taxes + insurance; of course there are still maintenance costs which are more ambiguous. But a large portion (~50%) of my "mortgage payment" is going into equity instead of going into a landlord's equity. If I wanted to rent and save enough to be able to rent during retirement (or to save enough to be able to buy my retirement home at retirement age) then I would have to be spending significantly more per month until retirement. Going into debt by taking a mortgage is a trade-off that makes sense to me given low interest rate and no depreciation in value (hopefully appreciation).

Edit: This is a US perspective but we've had the same question posed here.

Edit: The article's title is misleading. It conflates buying a home with irresponsible use of debt.