If you are as well off as Taylor Swift and get to choose... yeah, rent if you don't want to deal with the hassle of home ownership. You're rich and will be fine no matter what you do.

For everyone else, if you generally are going to work in the same geographic area (even if a bit of a commute) for the next decade... then yeah, if afforded the opportunity, buy. It's better to own something if given the chance (in general).

Hard to say in this current market. I took a 0% down payment mortgage out a decade ago, have paid off 30k, and have 200k in fake equity. Fake equity as the valuation is real estate bubble BS, and buying now could result in a massive negative equity (putting borrowers under water) if/when that bubble bursts, but simple fact of the matter is, as the above poster mentions, as long as you keep paying the mortgage, you actually get some equity/own something.

Worst case, your loan does go under.... you go bankrupt and end up.... right back where you were if you were renting anyways.

The way I like to look at it, is a mortgage (fixed) only gets cheaper. A decade from now, you're making more money, but inflation has devalued your income? Your mortgage principle + interest did not change in that time, so inflation has technically made your mortgage cheaper; whereas we've seen rents double, triple, or even quadruple in the past decade.

Note for the curious: While FDA and similar loans can get you lower down payments, what I used for 0% was a USDA Rural Development loan - only allows you to buy in certain areas (not metros typically), but you may be surprised what areas do qualify - check out the map, anything not highlighted qualifies - zoom on in, maybe that 'small town' a 10 minute drive outside the big city does: https://eligibility.sc.egov.usda.gov/eligibility/welcomeAction.do .... even winning a bid on homes in the current market may be tough though....