>Where I live (and true of virtually everywhere else I've lived over the last 20+ years), monthly rent significantly exceeds what the monthly mortgage repayment would be for the property if bought. Rental prices also seem to increase in lock step with or even above house price increases.

That just seems crazy to me as rental price here is like 1/3 of what a mortgage would be on a decent house I can find.

Also property taxes seem to go up just as fast or faster than rental increases.

I mean my rent increases like 2-3% a year over the last 15 years that I have been renting.

If I look back over my spreadsheets I have spent about 100K on rent in the last 15 years that I have been renting and that includes water and heat.