Since you asked there are plenty of cases where renting is cheaper than buying. Here are some examples :
1. Renting a seat on an airplane is much cheaper than buying the aircraft for all my trips.
2. Renting a car when I travel is cheaper than buying one. (Same with the hotel room, etc)
3. My tux for my Junior prom.
4. Rent for the hall where we had our wedding reception was cheaper than buying it.
5. My company’s lease (so far after 5 years) is much less expensive than purchasing a similar building.
6. I rented an RV several times. Cheaper than buying.
7. We take a boat to Catalina at least a couple times a year. Renting one is cheaper than buying.
8. U-haul truck.
9. Internet access.
10. Movies on DVD.
All of these things (with the exceptions of #8 and #5) are one-time or rare-use cases. A house is used every single day. If you wore your tux every day, would it be cheaper to rent it or buy it? What about your boat to Catalina if you sailed it every day? As for #8, there is no way to “buy” internet access forever, so that comparison doesn’t really work. And as for #5, there will be a time (after 10, 15, 20 years) where it would become cheaper to purchase that building than rent.
I’m not sure that purchasing a home should be cheaper than renting the equivalent in a nice place like SD, but I don’t think it should be significantly more expensive. I would be willing to pay $100/200 more a month for the privilege of owning an equivalent place to the one I currently rent, but unfortunately that’s still not possible.