Where you live doesn't generalize.

Where I live, interest payments alone exceed the rental rate for the same property even if you could afford a 20% downpayment. Those interest payments are a total loss. No amount of contortions can make those numbers pencil out where ownership is beneficial to the buyer. As it happens I now rent but I recently sold my house because it didn't make sense even though my carrying costs were far lower than any new buyer.

By the time you pay off a mortgage, a renter could afford to buy the same property for cash with money left over.

In NYC, an already expensive place to rent, a mortgage for a similar spot that I rent would be around double the monthly payment plus the 20%+ down.