This is one of the big reasons that I recently bought a home even knowing that prices are probably still headed down for several years to come. We couldn’t stay in our rental because it no longer suited our needs, so we would have to find another. There are so many of these landlords in trouble and there’s a good chance that you might get stuck with one after choosing a rental. Now you have to deal with realtors or maybe the sheriff in an extreme situation and have to move on short notice. No thanks. I’ll pay the ownership penalty for a house where at least I can stay put in peace without worrying about the landlord or whether I am going to have to move at any moment. Plus I HATE moving. It is time-consuming and expensive. Going into another rental would have guaranteed that we’d be moving at least one extra time. So we bought a house and I don’t care if it’s worth less 5 years from now because I’m staying put.