[freitzkriesler2]

Ease of movement is such a meme. Every time I've sold houses in 2nd or 3rd tier markets they've sold and gone into escrow in less than 2 months.

Maybe back when housing wasn't so tight this was the case. That isn't it anymore. Sure you have to queue up a bunch of things like a realtor and a mortgage broker but the benefits of getting equity outweigh the supposed convenience of renting .

[ghaff]

It's also often house vs. apartment. There's absolutely friction associated with moving from a house with its contents to another house than there is to moving from, say, a 1000 sq. ft. apartment to another. It's still a move but it's much less of an undertaking and, as a renter, you also tend to have a mindset that you will be moving.