I agree that you pay a premium for owning than renting. Maybe the markets are inflated, or maybe we just have too much cash following too few assets (i.e., inflation). As a landlord, I understand why people rent and there are lots of good reasons. Most people never use their house as an asset, anyway -- they live there, borrow against it, and then sell when they're ready. They're not really acquiring wealth.

But real estate is one of the few ways to acquire wealth, if you choose to use it that way. Leveraging a house as an asset brings tax benefits and lower borrowing costs, which you can use to acquire other assets, which pay you back more than the cost of borrowing. For the average person, they have no other asset to leverage this way. Also, if you hold your house for a while, you gain from building equity and also limit the damage of inflation. Even if the house is overpriced, you can find different ways to manage the value in your favor -- convert to rental, use it to run a business, refinance, etc.

Unfortunately most people don't see it that way. So, yea, I guess owning a home is "bad" advice in one sense, but it doesn't have to be.