Renting and ownership can be fairly similar in larger cities (but costs more than owning a house in my state), but when you're in the rural America, there tends to be a fairly sharp decrease in quality of life despite the fact that rental prices adjust up with housing prices anyway.

I mean, I can still get a half-acre of land and private house for a mortgage payment that's about the same as the rent on a 2 bedroom apartment. Without having to worry about a landlord, an upstairs neighbor with toddlers. I can do what I want with my yard, even have any pet without an additional "pet fee".

And rental houses (the happy medium?) in my area are going for exactly what the mortgage would be to buy one today. We're talking $3000, even $4000/mo. Yeah, current rates are shitty, but that still gets you a $550,000 mortgage (used to get you closer to $700,000). And rent isn't going down any time soon, but one can likely refinance to a lower rate in 5-10 years

What it means to me is that I'm not selling my house, with my 3% APR mortgage any time soon despite the $200,000 in equity I have from the price skyrocket.