I can certainly understand wanting to own because I am struggling with those feelings myself. There are good things about renting but I am happier owning. I’m also willing to pay a little premium in order to own my house. Just yesterday I did a bunch of calculations on a place that may come up for sale in a neighborhood where I would like to own. We could make it work with a 6.5% fixed. However, when I subtracted tax benefits and principle payments and then added in homeowners and property tax, I was left with a number that was $1,500 more a month than I could rent the place. Further, the opportunity cost on the money I would have to put down in order to buy the property works out to $1,200 a month at 5% interest. Plus, I did not even add in the opportunity cost of the extra $1,500 I was going to have to shell out every month. This was all assuming that the property does not drop any more than the 10% it has already seen.

I have to beat myself over the head with the numbers periodically in order to resist the lure of owning.