It’s all fine and good when rent is more expensive than mortgage, which has been the main theme since this site started. However, what would you do when it’s actually cheaper to buy than rent, but there’s still down side risk? Not every areas are like that but affordable areas like Mira Mesa are already cheaper to buy vs rent. This is just talking about pure economics of buy vs rent. There are things that you get from buying vs rent as well that have different value to different people, which is stability, expense control, ability to modify your home the way you want, the ability to live in an area/location you want, etc. To some, these things are worthless and to some, it’s worth it to even buy at peak 2005 price.