If you can afford rent, you can afford a mortgage on a modest house, and waiting until you can make a downpayment is worth the potential agony of continuing to stay at home.

I don't think this applies in a lot of places, because of the sheer size of down payment prices, and government regulations.

Houses in my neighbourhood cost about $1 million, but I only pay $1000/mo in rent. I rent a woman's basement, and even a world-class basement apartment is obviously going to be cheaper than the shittiest detached house. If I move to a more economical neighbourhoods, modest houses in rougher and outer-ring suburbs cost about $500,000-$600,000. It's no small feat to save up $100,000 to $200,000. Also, I live in Canada where we have anti-subprime-mortgage "housing stress tests" that mean unless you earn a certain income per year, even if you have a lot of money saved up, you just aren't allowed to buy a house (unless you win the lottery and buy it outright, or something wild like that). Under the stress tests, holding student debt also makes a mortgage difficult. I've heard that a lot of countries have similar regulations.