[squeerisott]

Here's an interactive calculator that plots out whether is makes sense to buy or rent against certain criteria. For me, at my rent level and the cost of owning anywhere near here, it's clear that I'm on the right path.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/b...alculator.html

As the story notes above, in times of economic volatility, a house can prove to be a very illiquid asset, particularly as valuations decline, which I entirely believe to be a generational shift in perspective. That is, I think home prices will be range-bound for the next decade or more as the hangover of the housing boom continues to play out. And I think an entire generation will find renting more appealing than owning as part of a strategy of diversifying one's assets into more liquid buckets.