What would be cool on top of this is if they figured in mortgage prices, the average home upkeep costs for a certain area, insurance prices, and property taxes

What would be cool on top of this is if they figured in mortgage prices, the average home upkeep costs for a certain area, insurance prices, and property taxes (whew, it'd be hard) to determine if you're flat out better of renting or buying in an area over an arbitrary period of time. This has always been something I've wondered about, whether or not buying a home or renting an apartment is actually cheaper based on a bunch of different factors. In the US, there's always this big push for home ownership, but sometimes I question the wisdom (financially) of buying a home for 'equity building' or whatever else. That's not to say that owning your own home can't be totally fun and a great place to raise a family or whatever else..obviously that's pretty hard to weigh objectively, but still. I think this would be an interesting direction for this site to go.