"Don't throw your money away in rent" - hmmmm I live in an area that is high risk for wildfires. Many locals have been dropped by their insurer and are paying

"Don't throw your money away in rent" - hmmmm I live in an area that is high risk for wildfires. Many locals have been dropped by their insurer and are paying ~1% per year to the CA "FAIR" plan. Add on taxes (1%) and the fact that any house in the $500k range around here has deferred maintenance, in serious need of an updating and is likely a (poorly) manufactured home and so you are looking at 1.5% for maintenance. Add in interest (post deduction) and the opportunity cost of 80-100k in an investment portfolio and a home owner here is throwing away a lot of money - (those add up to much more than I pay to rent a $500k house here). Compounding all of that, in ~20 years of home ownership, I have never lived in one house longer than 6 years - despite my intentions otherwise. This is just to say that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to the complex problem of domicile/investment and if you live in a high risk natural disaster zone, you are rolling some tough dice.