Why do renters rent

[Account Closed]

I am new to real estate investing and never really had much interactions with renters. I had a friend who rented out a house. The tenant who was nice although very very messy lol. I asked him why he didn't just buy a home since he is paying $800 in rent for a house worth $70k. He said basically he has bad credit. I was wondering what causes people to rent. I read a statistic that about 30% of people in usa rent, which seems very high. If you could share your experience with your tenants , what they did for a living, and any reason they are renting?

Thanks