That's the thing, right? Rents have gone up just as much, if not more, than mortgages.

When we bought our house in 2017 we had rented two previous places over about 5 years. The first one started out at about $1300 a month for a luxury apartment in a nice neighborhood. After the first lease was up it jumped to $1900. We couldn't afford that at the time, so we moved way out in the boonies and rented an attached townhome for about $1400 a month. When we bought our house, it had just gone up to also $1900. Our mortgage is $2200 (including escrow), so at the time it was a slight bump up, but we could afford it.

It's been 5 years now, and I'm not sure what the townhouse is going for, but the other day I happened to be in the neighborhood of my old apartment and looked up how much it's going for just for laughs: $4400 a month for a 900 sq ft 2 bedroom apartment.