For most of us investing our personal capital controls how quickly we can accumulate real estate and build wealth.  I

The ones that stay come from very wealthy families or earn over 300k per year combined. 1200 sq ft for 4k per month is not the life we want for our family, and many other Millennials are moving to the Midwest and other places like Florida for quality of life reasons.

It's very normal, even trendy for people nowadays to focus on fitness, diet, mental health, work life balance, friends, family.

Long term wealth is the goal so I think buying even if expensive is the way to go.

You can get rich off rents, but you’ll get wealthy off appreciation.  

Of course, personal preference does have a role to play, though, and it's perfectly respectable and reasonable to follow one's heart rather than mind.In any event, I have yet to meet someone who is extremely wealthy and not heavily leveraged.

There are very few people that successfully become wealthy through shortcuts.

@Drew A Roque I have never met a wealthy person with student loan debt.

The international market is made up of western standard properties and are bought by the Mexican's wealthy and foreigners.

My favorite at the moment is Buy and Hold Forever by Robert Schumacher and he became very wealthy.