Are we lucky to own a home?

In a moment of boredom I began watching Saints and Scroungers, the opening line from the presenter was “some of us are lucky enough to own our own home while others need help to pay their rent”. On CT we have had discussions before re benefits and I realise some people need help, my belief is that luck had nothing to do with me eventually owning my own home. After getting married we rented a flat for 18 months and realised it was just wasting money so we took out a mortgage on a mid terraced 2 up 2 down near to where I worked, just to get on the housing ladder. We decided to start a family and were lucky enough to have two girls 18 months apart. With me working sometimes 7 days a week and the OH doing a cleaning job in school hours we managed to move up to a three bed roomed semi, a lot nicer house but a much bigger mortgage meant that things were very tight. We made sacrifices and went without all but the basics for a few years, but we always made sure the kids were happy and we had some great holidays in an old touring caravan that we still talk about to this day.

 I believe it was a life choice and not luck, we worked and scrimped to get where we are and we had some very high interest rates on the mortgages, up to 16% in the late 70s. What do you think?