You must be in a very low tax bracket. If you were in a 37% marginal tax bracket like most homeowners around here a 2500/month rental payment is about the same as a 3700 mortgage+tax payment. Through in a couple hundred bucks for happiness associated with owning your own home, a couple more for not worrying about having to move when your landlord sells (havent moved lately but imagine it would cost at least 5K when you factor in all the costs), a couple more for the prinicipal you are paying down each month and then a couple hundred more to account for your rent rising over the next 5 to 10 years and I’d say it’s worth a little more than $100 to $200/month.

But here’s my 64K questions…ARE YOU SAVING $1,000/MONTH FOR YOUR RETIREMENT RIGHT NOW?