Apart from the stability factor, one of the primary reasons to buy rather than to rent is to stabilize your housing costs. Assuming you don’t refinance, your mortgage payment stays the same no matter what the market rents are.

There are some people who think that rents are as subject to decline as sale prices during economic downturns, but so far that hasn’t ever happened yet in SD County to any significant degree. That could change, but if that happened it would be the first time.

The one thing about buying an affordable housing unit is that you’re not looking at as large a profit opportunity as you would be looking at if the property had no such restrictions. If you think your income is going to increase a lot over the next 10 years you may be considering this home to be the first of 2 or 3 homes, in which case you might be better off timing the market to buy low so as to be able to sell high later on.

On the other hand if you think your income is going to be relatively stable and you aren’t planning to move up this becomes a long term decision that relates to your quality of life, control of housing expenses and such rather than profit opportunity.

Personally, I think if you stick around for a few years you’ll be able to buy a similar unit without the affordable housing restrictions for less than these units are now selling. But nobody knows the future and you will have to come to your own opinions at some point.