Rent or Buy?

Our house, is a very, very, very fine house.
With two cats in the yard ...
- CROSBY, STILLS and NASH

Today I encourage you to read the article, The Renting Alternative Will Undermine The Housing Market For Years, from BusinessInsider.com. Ignore the misleading title. What the article is really about and covers well is the increasing tendency of successful individuals and couples to choose renting an apartment over buying a house. As one person put it,

"With a pool I don't pay for, a gym that's open 24 hours a day, and emergency plumbers on staff at 2 a.m., I have enough responsibility in my life that I don't need a home."

A commenter from Chicago says,

"I think we might be renters forever. My husband and I love sitting ... in the park reading the Sunday New York Times while our landlord is stuck fixing the garbage disposal. Time is priceless. And we are nowhere nearly as freaked out about finances as our friends are."

Bottom Line

I knew a man who worked as a school teacher by and a troubled youth counselor overnight in order to raise the money for a home for his family (this was back in the days you needed a real deposit on a new home.)
At the time he lived in a beautiful apartment complex with a tennis court, rec center, swimming pool, green fields, etc. but he felt it essential that his kids had their own lawn to play on.

Personally I'd be very happy to give up lawn care, etc. (I'm grateful my wife mows the lawn.)