With that said, I think some other things have to be taken into consideration. I was in my 40’s when I bought my first house. I still have 12 years to go because we did a refi after the first 3 years. True, paying a mortgage is less than renting an apartment… until you think about escrow for first time homebuyers, the cost of updating everything on a consistent basis, having to go back and fix everything that was wrong with the house if you didn’t buy new. At this point the house is worth around $50K more than when I bought it, but it’s cost at least $75K to fix what needed to be fixed… and I’m not done yet!

It’s a different perspective from the norm, but it needed to be said. Research, learn more about it before you do it. I wish we’d had better internet information when I was looking. The best thing I did was fall back on my financial instincts and not pay more for a house than my realtor was telling us we could afford. That $250K house was beautiful; I’d have probably lost it in 2009 when the housing market went bust, the consulting market went bust, and we were scraping by. Whew!

Home ownership is a dream worth pursuing. The advantages you revealed will help to spur us forward to this dream.

Yeah, I feel you. My Dad was always shocked that I bought a house even in New Orleans. He would say that for someone with such a nomadic heart, it seems weird that you would anchor yourself. But I find that it has actually helped me with my traveling in a weird way in that I was able to control my income a bit better by being a home owner.