Potential price hikes are also a factor. Back when I was still renting, even though I had more than enough income to cover increases, I'd feel immense stress e

Potential price hikes are also a factor. Back when I was still renting, even though I had more than enough income to cover increases, I'd feel immense stress every time the months leading up to lease renewal rolled around. Keeping housing costs below a certain threshold is a critical part of being able to stick away some cash for a rainy day or even having anything left over, and accomplishing this usually meant moving every few years, which meant periodically returning once again to the grueling search for something with vaguely not-horrible value for the price, which is exacerbated if you're anything but a perfect model renter who doesn't have pets or kids — even making substantial use of the kitchen is prohibited in some rentals. A lot of landlords seem to want tenants who only ever come home to sleep and are otherwise ghosts. Ever since I bought a house a couple of years ago, mental bandwidth I'd lost to this stress has been coming back to me. Housing costs being essentially fixed in perpetuity and there being no possibility of being forced to move has done wonders for cutting down on stress and anxiety.