There are a few defensive home owners in this thread who seem to be missing the point: The main problem is that the general public sees renting as throwing mon

There are a few defensive home owners in this thread who seem to be missing the point: The main problem is that the general public sees renting as throwing money away, and that owning a home is unconditionally "better". I'll make the assumption that this community has higher-than-average financial literacy, and hence there are people who have made the right decision with respect to rent/buy. However, I don't think this is true in general, and often times the rent/buy choice is much, MUCH closer than people assume.