The political and tax situation in some places makes home ownership a complete waste of time.
That is a very real problem here in NJ; people realize they are just renting the homes from the teachers’ unions (75% of our high taxes go there), and young people want none of it. Combined with the complete collapse of the nuclear family and birthrate, who needs them? The trend here is to renovate existing single-family homes into multi-family or rooming houses for childless adults (single or cohabitating, rarely married).