However, I’d like to mention some facts that you missed about home (or apartment) ownership. You miss out on equity build-up when you rent. However, that can be somewhat remedied with a lease-with-option-to-buy contract on any home you rent (temporary or not).

Also, I feel that even if you aren’t completely sure you’ll be living permanently in one part of the country – this is a day and age where people pick up and move just as often as not, and it would be totally feasible to have your former primary residence turned into a rental property.

Anyhoo, I can relate to where you’re coming from even though we bought a house not even one year ago. Still, I go back and forth about it for different reasons. I love our house and I love that we have the space to grow and do what we want when we have kids, have family over etc etc. Still, I realize that it comes at a huge expense.

While renting we were paying $1700 for a 900 sq ft one bedroom apartment which we LOVED!! No question, hands down we loved living there but consider that our mortgage is SAME as what we were paying for our little apartment so it made sense for us at the time. If I had the chance would I sell and move? I dont know that I would, it would have to be great neighborhood and I have my preferences which I realize caused us to live in a pretty expensive area prior to moving.

Ehh Im undecided , but if we found a cheaper place, say less than $1500 we would consider it. What I do find crazy is that during the housing boom here, folks werent talking about the cost of a home because of the BOOM. When I moved here investors were holding houses for a month and then making a serious profit once sold.

By the way, the same chapter suggested setting aside 2% of the value of the house each year for repairs. I think that’s really good advice. This year we’ve replaced the sewer line to the street, had the trees trimmed, and had the gutters put on more tightly, and we have to get a new furnace/ac system in the spring. We will have spent more than 2% of the value of the house between July 2007 and July 2008.