Common wisdom is that 5 years is the bare minimum time to own before selling. Buying a house is a long-term strategy to lock in a current mortgage when you know

Common wisdom is that 5 years is the bare minimum time to own before selling. Buying a house is a long-term strategy to lock in a current mortgage when you know you aren't going to move and rents are likely to go up. After 10 or 15 years your payments will be slightly larger (with increased tax evaluations), and rent is likely to have increased more. There are additional benefits, but these vary drastically based on what you buy and what your goals are. This is all very general, and doesn't apply to every area equally, but it is a very rare situation where selling after less than five years makes sense on its own. Renting is a great option for people planning to move again in that time frame.