Yeah, I want to stress I'm not saying people shouldn't ever buy, but it's contingent on the circumstances and it's often overlooked that renting can make practi

Yeah, I want to stress I'm not saying people shouldn't ever buy, but it's contingent on the circumstances and it's often overlooked that renting can make practical and financial sense. If you're going to settle down in a desirable area and not move for awhile, the benefits of buying make sense. But: In most markets, the month-to-month carrying costs of a mortgaged home can be larger than renting (mortgage, property taxes, maintenance, HOA fees, etc). Historically over the long term it can make more financial sense to rent and then invest that delta (though it's contingent on actually doing that and varies by market, etc). In Canada where I live, a lot of people did what you did, but are now under water in both the carrying costs as well as their home values being less than the purchase price and outstanding mortgage balance as we entered a real estate correction. This means they're stuck and can never move (mortgages in most of Canada are recourse, so the bank can go after you if you walk away). A lot of people also became landlords and bought homes or condos (using the classic anti-renting trope "I'm going to have some sucker tenant pay my mortgage for me"), but are now cash-flow negative with the rents they can bring in, but also can't sell. Enter the softening job market and those people are in trouble. This is before the risk of a bad tenant or sudden maintenance event. There's absolutely nothing wrong with owning a home or even real estate, but far too many people tie too high a percentage of their wealth into it as a single asset class and they don't understand that there are actual risks. The financial crisis exposed and took advantage of the expectations people have of it.