Yes and no. It vastly depends on the value of money. If you owned between 1900 and 1930, you were doubly screwed by deflationary cycles (Panic of 1906 and the Great Depression). What destroyed small farms was that depreciation set the prices of crops to 1/3 of their normal value and the mortgage payments are the same.
So, the "Yes" comes from what you just stated. When you "own" with a mortgage, you fix your rent at a certain level unless you're stupid enough to own with variable interest (especially given that the Feds are going to go nuts when they figure out that they have 0 control over inflation without Volcker rates). The negative part of the play is that "deflation" comes from you or your partner not being employed. So, you have to work to make the mortgage payment at least, which is why I never recommend a mortgage payment more than 50% of the net household income (the official states less, but in practice, most pay more than 50% of their household income when accounting for house maintenance, taxes, and insurance).
The No comes from 2 reasons. If you owned in many urban area in 1900-1930 or 1960-1990, you were either screwed by the financial panics or in the latter case, the reduction of city services. If you lived in downtown Baltimore or Detroit, you were totally screwed as the city services stopped working for you and crime escalated as well as utilities failed (no reliable water, power, or gas) with escalating property taxes to offset Section 8 and other property tax deadbeats. When you own, your risk is that you maintain that level of income and your community doesn't go to hell, both of which are not necessarily guaranteed.
The interesting question is whether living in the suburbs and the country is going to be viable for those who commute 20+ miles. This is prohibitively expensive in most places in the world including Europe as gas and car prices are really high. The average household may be priced out of this too soon. It was only in the 80s where a two car household became usual in the middle class. With gas and cars going up, perhaps we revert to such an era and that makes suburbian life much less tenable. The Republicans may get their wish for a barefoot and domestic spouse. However, they may be disappointed that I think more guys would be happy to make their wives work and they sit at home with Call of Duty and on their third can by 11:00 AM as they'll be legal for when they pick up the kids at 3:00.
By the way, $60k is ABOVE the median and mean incomes in the vast majority of metropolitans. And if you can't make it work on that amount, think about making less. As much as we grouse about our lot, it's nice to know that we can actually take that level of debt safely though it is worrisome that the security net is not there for us either.
