Nothing against home ownership for those it makes sense for, but there's an extent to which it's artificially been made part of "the American dream" through e.g. tax engineering to benefit contractors and mortgage lenders. For some people, renting makes more sense. For example, people whose careers have them traveling a lot and/or moving every few years are better off renting and investing in something other than a home, rather than locking themselves into a 20-year mortgage and hoping they can sell at a profit part of the way into that mortgage.