Renting is essentially paying someone else a fee to take the property price risk for you, which is a very good bet during a real estate crash, even one that has stalled temporarily because of massive intervention. My guess is the current head fake will make a lot of “losers” out of current homeowners.

As pointed out above. Quite possibly your, circa 2005, statement:

Rental status is highly correlated to lower socio-economic status also a strong predictor of academic achievment of students. In other words, I you rent you are likely to be poor and dumb.

is some sort of subconscious bargaining rationalization for questionable decisions you’ve made. Though, I’m pretty sure excessive leverage can be damaging for people of all levels of education.

fwiw – My landlord actually tried to increase rent by $100 being that my lease is up in August. I ended up getting a $100 reduction.