Renting or buying, is homeownership actually still the better long term financial move today

[Merchant]

For decades, buying a home was treated as the default financially responsible move for anyone who could genuinely afford it, building equity instead of paying rent, while renting was framed almost entirely as throwing money away with nothing to show for it at the end of a lease. Rising property prices, higher interest rates in a lot of markets, and increasing maintenance and insurance costs have made that old assumption look considerably less clear cut than it once did for plenty of people today.

Defenders of buying still point to the long term wealth building potential of owning an appreciating asset outright, along with the genuine stability of not being subject to a landlord's decisions or unexpected rent increases. Defenders of renting point to the flexibility to relocate easily for work or personal reasons, the ability to invest the money that would otherwise go toward a deposit and mortgage costs, and freedom from unpredictable maintenance expenses that fall entirely on an owner rather than a landlord. Given current market conditions where you live, do you think buying is genuinely still the smarter financial move, or has renting quietly become the more sensible choice for a lot of people?