There are a few points I would respectfully submit on this topic, if I may. Actually, as there are no preconditions preventing me making these points I not just would, but WILL make them!

For most of human history, most people have not lived 'the American/western dream' or variation on it, meaning stable well paid employment taking a 25 year mortgage to own their own home. Ill leave marriage and children aside, despite it being part of the white picket fence dream, as most people did still get married and have children for the duration of civilization and even pre-civilization. Just focussing on owning a property,'A' being singular, not plural.

This is something that I think became the norm for the majority only post WW2. Prior to that it seems at least half the people rented in an urban area or were housed/accommodated by a land owner in a rural area. If you go back a little further to the 19th C, Im guessing around 80% did not own their own property, certainly not one dwelling per nuclear family which is 'the dream'.

One thing we see in recent decades, at least since the beginning of the 21st C, is the single generation family home being signed over to a nursing home and its value being deducted at rates of on average, a thousand dollars a week. If your home was worth 400k you had only 8 years of money to give over, which is usually enough.
if you did not own A home and rented on a pension and/or retirement funds, the govt still takes care of you if you need to go to aged care.

What then is the benefit of paying off the property, other than:
A period of owning it clear and free in retirement, say from 55 to 75 if you took out a 25 year mortgage at age 30.
If you die inside 5 yrs of going into aged care, still having some value in the property to leave to beneficiaries.

There are pros and cons to renting vs owning, which I won't go into here as you probably already are aware of those.

People complain of isolation and loneliness epidemics. More communal living counteracts that, whether people have flatmates/housemates or live with parents and grandparents. Of course its not a definite given that living with more people is always better, but overall there is more company and support all round. Clans, come tribes are also a form of physical security, as relying on law abiding and law enforcement is also a relatively recent development.

Mortgages are 30 yrs with 20% deposit typically now. For men stupid enough to still get married or defacto cohabit in todays legal system, theres a better than even chance everything he put into it is going to be lost in seperation or divorce. That is the biggest reason for "the young generation" increasingly not getting married and buying a house.

I think it was 65% of men 30 and under, that's near enough 2/3 are single now. this is a little hazy on the exact numbers, but predicted that by 2030 50% of women will be single  and childless. Those were from the US, but can generalise across western countries. What never gets broken down is the racial split in that, as recent immigrants are forming families far more than people 'born here'. If they were to look at Aframerican and Anglo only, that would probably blow out to 65% of women.

"The young Generation" in this discussion seems too ill defined. is it Millennials, Gen Z, or both? How about 35 and under. 40 is not only not young but could have been looking at property prices from 2015 or 2010 which would be half what they are today. Thats a very different level of difficulty with general cost of living and inflation.

A 40 year old woman really isn't going to have children, even if she gets married at that age either to fulfil The Dream.

So limiting 'the young generation' to 35 and under, or 1990 and over, how does it play out? Are we seeing high flying boss babes like the delta air, DC crash blackhawk and malaysian chopper crash credentialed career girl crews unable to find men making more than themselves to marry. Are they getting their ideas on what men are worthy from tiktok and Instagram influencers (of each other) instead of mutual friends, their mother and father? Are the regular guys without a Model Y or movie star smile, largely not even trying? while a cadre of usual suspects is responsible for all the finger wagging rants on getting ghosted and guys 'not knowing how to follow up'.

 There are a hell of a lot of people with the ordinary jobs on utube saying theyre quitting and working is a waste of time, or explaining why everyone is doing so. I get that it barely makes ends meet, companies and conpany men who work for them are a nightmare. I never see them explain how the bills are going to get paid once they do that though. I guess they don't have a mortgage is half of the how.