That's fair. I was mainly trying to push back against the idea that owning a home is always a good investment. There are definitely other major advantages to owning a home.

Exactly. The tax advantages are tangential to the behavioral factors I mentioned.

Real estate can make sense as an investment but most people aren't in a position to treat their primary residence like one.

Fully agree on this. If you have kids, stability is important so that can be a good reason to buy, regardless of whether it's an optimal financial decision.

In what possible scenario is burning cash vs keeping a fraction of it a bad financial decision?

I can only imagine it makes financial sense to rent if you live somewhere where you're not paying off someone else's mortgage and are paying a fair renting price. (Otherwise paying your own mortgage just makes more sense)

As an actual honest question, where in the world is like that any more?

In most HCOL cities it's cheaper to rent than to buy

not in the UK.

Which is why I asked.

I can name 4 cities easily where you're paying mortgage+extra driven by the "buy-to-let" craze over here. I'll assume you mean the UK is a phenomena in that case.

I think the difference for the UK is it’s HCOL but low pay, so people there can’t afford the mortgage down payment as much, which is not normal for say American HCOL cities.

> the UK is it’s HCOL but low pay

_sigh_ don't remind me...