[webprofusion]

Owning a home is like paying into a bank account made from bricks, but it increases in value. Yes it requires upkeep and maintenance, because entropy wants it to be a decaying pile of rubble. The land will always have a value, so maintenance is kind of optional-ish.

The people trying to convince you to keep renting are, sometimes, rental investors stealing from your children's inheritance. Renting is paying a property investors mortgage in return for a home you don't have to/cannot directly maintain but you are still paying for the maintenance on a weekly/monthly basis at an agreed rate with annual increases.

On the other hand if you're not going to have kids it's bit like Brewsters Millions where you try to spend everything you make without acquiring assets and without running out of money while you still need it.

You can always sell and go back to renting, but if you rent for 30 yrs you will put at least a couple of homes worth of your earnings into renting over that period.