They had renting back then too and way before that, and it was really large scale too. It’s not really a new phenomenon. And obviously buying a house is still a lot (and I mean a lot) more expensive than renting. Not everyone can save off from their paycheck so that they’d be able to pay for even these cheaper houses.
But in this case I’m not sure if we are talking about situation where the original post’s house was on sale (which would just make it a regular house you have to buy) or a situation where there isn’t any renting at all (or profiting from it), in which case it’d still be more expensive but less so than renting.