The neighbors situation is really the only valid reason I see to buying a single family home. If you never plan on having kids though and you don't have huge family gatherings and multiple people staying with you all the time then that is really the only reason. With a single family house your taxes, insurance, mortgage will all go up, so will the rest of the utilities and expenses and the yardwork never stops. If you enjoy yardwork (sometimes I do) then go for it, but I spend about 1-2 hours/week doing it and it does become a hassle. You also have more to clean and maintain and furnish. I certainly understand not wanting to be around neighbors all the time, especially if they are noisy, but could you just get some better insulation in the walls or that quiet sheet rock to create a sound barrier? Townhouses are easy, not much work to do, hopefully no condo fees, if you have enough space are only spending 10-15% of your salary (as compared to the 28% that the bank will tell you you need to spend) then why don't you just start paying down your house faster, refinance to a 10 or 15 year and become financially independent earlier? If you have both sets of family in the area then you have large places for family gatherings. I don't see any reason to own a big house with much more space than you need unless you plan on having many kids. I lived in a 2 bedroom condo (with a loft - where we stayed) with the Mrs. and 2 kids for a few years, we only moved to a single family home when we moved to a lower cost location, but if we stayed in the same area I would have been pushing to stay in that condo. The maintenance was minimal and we could enjoy more of life rather than having to mow the lawn and trim the hedges. I live in a house, I love not having neighbors that I share a wall with, but I also used to share walls and the maintenance was much less and allowed more time to do other stuff. We were lucky enough to move to an area where the mortgage on my house is less than the mortgage on the condo, so it worked out, but if kids are never in your future, if your neighbors aren't out of the movie "the neighbors" then I would stay put for a while and work on your investments and paying down the house, or re-finance if you can get a lower rate and pay it down even faster.