You can "just stop renting" and move somewhere else.

Housing demand is less elastic than, let's say, potato demand, but it's not "absolutely inelastic" as you have said.

Good transit and road infrastructure also both make demand more elastic because the choice of where you can live without changing jobs expands.

In MBA101-bobos world this is true in theroy, in practice its not. (let me guess: You do not have children, yet, right?)

Thats always the biggest difference:

In theory, there is no difference between practive and theory - but in practice, there is ;-)