Well it's up to you but I don't understand some of the pro-rent arguments.
Yes, owning may be more expensive over time, but once the mortgage is clear you have the security. I wouldn't want to be renting in retirement.
And job losses etc are not good reasons. You can be evicted from a rental for not paying just as you can with an owned property. As for 2008 not being a good time - this would be when prices plummeted and buyers bought at vastly reduced prices that have since increased in many areas? Bubbles have happened in the past and will happen again, 2008 was bad but shouldn't be much of a deterrent, especially in the direct aftermath.
Personally I do agree there are pros and cons to each. I've rented and now own and prefer it but there is more concern about things going wrong. But, the people I know who are late 30s or older seem to regret not buying. I work with a 41 year old who wished he had bought and doesn't know how he will now.
And just so people know, homeowners can travel too. In fact, it's easier - I had clauses in my rental contract about not leaving the place empty for too long, and owners can even rent it out if they go away.
I'm pretty much of the opinion that renting has advantages, but many of us will one day wake up and wish we had the security and comfort of our own home. No worry of a rent increase, no worry of a landlord selling and kicking you out, or things not getting repaired
One last point on recessions - if you rent and your landlord defaults, bye bye home. If you own, there are options. A reduced value only matters if you try and sell in that time. If you have good history of payments many lenders will allow a payment holiday, especially if you have a lot of equity or have overpaid. Or if you have good savings like many here, you could afford the mortgage even if the worst happened and you lost the job for a while. The point being, there is a perceived idea of freedom with renting, but I find it far riskier and with far fewer choices
I thought about your post last night, because some of it seem directed at things I was saying. I want to point out a few things in your comments, not to start an argument, but just to highlight the different perspectives and thinking on this.
1) "Well it's up to you"--yes, we all get to make our own choices with various reasons that are personal and unique. :)
2) Security argument--there are two ways that I see this. Yes, you "own" the house (i.e. don't have a mortgage) but you still have all of the utilities, property taxes, and maintenance costs. My parents' house has been paid off for years, but it's not like living is totally "free" for them--and it always seems there's another project (replacing flooring, cleaning carpets, new washer/dryer, etc.) not to mention keeping it updated (faucets, light fixtures, etc. from the 1970s when they built have now been replaced). And lots of people are forced to rent or vastly prefer it in retirement when they become less able-bodied--and communities designed for 55+ are pretty popular, at least in my area (Minnesota), and I know they are big business in other areas (Florida, Arizona). Not having to worry about maintenance when you have arthritis or something is a really big deal for a lot of folks. I told my dad that the last time he painted the house would be his last--I am never letting my (nearly) 70-year-old father back up on an extension ladder, so God help me. Also, the sense of community in these places is pretty amazing--people check on each other, have card groups, eat meals together, etc. so for widows or widowers, they don't become disconnected from a social life even though they aren't able to drive or whatever.
3) Yes, you can be evicted for not paying rent, however, in my situation, we've always had the backup option in our lease to do a buyout (pay the equivalent of a couple month's rent and break the lease), and then move in with family, if needed. If we'd been locked into a mortgage when the market crashed, and then lost a job, a foreclosure would be a much bigger hit financially than paying $1,200 to break a lease. My sister actually just broke her lease to buy a place, so I know how easy it is. This is one reason we keep an emergency fund that would cover us in a buyout situation.
4) I don't see my apartment as "not my home"--in fact, I've been there as long as I've been married, and I basically know no different. My apartment feels more "like home" than my parents' house where I grew up. It's got all my stuff, I've decorated it nicely, and it's a lovely building perfectly situated near work and other nice things (parks, etc.)
5) Travel--maybe in Minnesota, this is different, because you don't want to leave your house unoccupied and unattended in winter without someone checking in on it. We check in on my parents' house when they travel in winter, because pipes can freeze, snow piles up and it's obvious nobody's home, etc. Last winter, cities recommended people leave their water running overnight because so many pipes were bursting. We even have friends whose house is warmed by a wood burning system, so they literally cannot leave it unattended with no fire, so they have to find a house sitter if they want to be gone in the winter, even for one day. So when I say we can literally lock up and leave, I mean it. Water will keep running for the other units, so pipes are unlikely to freeze, and somebody else deals with all the snow, and it's easy to alert our apartment manager that we'll be gone and someone keeps an eye on things (all included in the price of rent).
6) Landlords can default--maybe this is more common with renting houses. OP and I are both renting apartments. My building has been owned by the same family for many years--my mom actually rented an apartment in the same complex in the 1960s. I don't think it's as risky as you make it seem. It would be in a bank/lender's interest to keep paying tenants in their units, even if the 'owner' defaulted on their payments--the bank then could collect the rents, and keep it attractive as a buying opportunity for another investor. I have literally never heard of a whole apartment building full of tenants being thrown out without notice because someone defaulted. Maybe it does happen, but it's not something I stay awake worrying about.
7) For us, renting has offered more sense of 'security' than buying. Because of the way my job works, every two years there has been a threat of potential job loss. And my husband's job was not something he could do long-term (he knew he could do it for 5 years, but that was it). By continuing to rent, we've been able to be flexible in our thinking. And our dollars have been
very flexible. We would not have been able to fund my husband's graduate school if we'd bought a house. We had a lot of money in savings that would not have been there if it had been part of a down payment--instead, it's paying tuition for him to get a much better longterm career. And there's a sense of security in not having to even think about certain problems--for example, when our refrigerator died two days before Christmas, all we had to do was call up the office and we had a new one in a couple hours--DH and I were able to go to work/school without even thinking about it. The apartment handyman actually moved our food to the new fridge for us. ;)
8) Even though we have been pretty hardcore renters, if/when our financial/job situation changes, we may consider buying a house. I have a pretty loud hobby (opera singing) and would love to own a piano and take lessons. But I know that this is an emotional decision, not a financial one. Renting a one bedroom is always going to be cheaper than owning a 3-bedroom house in our area, and that's pretty much just a fact (every time I run a rent vs. buy calculator, we come out way ahead by renting--investments of the cost difference between renting and buying end up paying our rent).