Yup...still renting

After a year and a half of actively searching for a place to buy, my wife and I have officially moved to the sidelines. In all that time, we saw only 4 or 5 apartments we could envision as our long-term home, and they were all significantly out of our price range. We've been renting our current apartment for 4 years. While it's not ideal, we are still comfortable here, it's a well-run building,... [more]

After a year and a half of actively searching for a place to buy, my wife and I have officially moved to the sidelines. In all that time, we saw only 4 or 5 apartments we could envision as our long-term home, and they were all significantly out of our price range. We've been renting our current apartment for 4 years. While it's not ideal, we are still comfortable here, it's a well-run building, and have always thought of our deal as a bargain compared to other rental deals we've seen and heard of. We were offered a 3% decrease from our current rent, which immediately dropped to 12% when I "kicked the tires." I don't get all the negativity I see on these boards about renting. If we had bought a "starter" apartment four years ago, we'd be a lot further away from buying our ultimate home than we are now. We'd be pretty screwed. [less]