The stable environment comes from the parents, not the box that the parents live in…
CONCHO, I whole-heartedly agree with that. When I said "same stable environment", I should probably have put an emphasis on "same". We were quite content with our current rental, but now through no control of our own, we must move. Rentals are thin in my kids school district, and now we're moving into a much smaller (albeit cheaper) rental 4 houses down the street. And this new rental is a long-time rental property… very out-dated. I don't care much, but my stay-at-home wife has to live in it all day long. Truth is, we're lucky it came up when it did. If it did not, we would be moving school districts. A lot of people don't mind moving their kids around a lot ,"kids are resilient" they say. Different strokes… I personally do mind and I do not think my view of that is particularly unique. In addition to the "paint & improve the way you want" thing about home ownership, it is especially nice to know if you want your family to stay put, they can.
All the points people have made here about the advantages of renting are valid. I especially like Diego Mamani's example of 2 years of free rent – very good. I also do not buy into the "renters are losers meme". I'm not even sure what a "meme" is:)
I would just like to point out (maybe the obvious) that there are some nice advantages to owning the "box" you live in beside the tangible financial reasons. Unfortunately at this time in San Diego, those ownership advantages clearly come at a very high price.
