I’ll second what Daniel said, except we’re even older (40 this year), and have been renting since our mid-30s. We have three kids, and one was conceived and born while living in our rental.
We also have 800+ FICO scores, no debt, six-figure income, and assets which would enable us to buy a house cash if we liquidated them (mostly in cash vehicles at this point).
We are NOT buying. This decision has served us VERY well for the past few years, and we have no regrets. Your kids will not know, nor will they care about where your housing payments are going — a landlord or a mortgage servicer — unless YOU make it a big deal.
Whatever you decide, I wish you luck. But the other posters are correct: you do have other options.
