<prompt> Human: I understand the psychological affect that owning a house has vs renting one: short of a drastic change in your life and income, you get to stay in the same place for as long as you want, instead of worrying whether or not your rent will rise next year or the landlord will want to sell the house, etc. Ive had friends who experienced these situations that eventually forced their hand toward buying a house. Weve been fortunate in that we have been renting a house from a nice couple for a number of years, and our rent has gone up just 1 on average.For context, we live in the Seattle area, which right now is on a rocketship trajectory to having some of the most insane house prices in the country, right behind SF and NYC. I do work in the tech industry, so its a bit of a double-edged sword when it comes to a prosperous economy and the dismal state of more affordable housing. We got into our house near the bottom of the recession, and our landlords dont seem too concerned with trying to milk rents for all they can even though they could probably raise it quite a bit given the market.My wife just really wants to own a house to at least take away from some anxiety year over year as to whether or not we can stay in our house. Were a single income family she home-schools our kids, and although I recently accepted a new job that pays more, saving money has been a bit slow-going thats probably another post. I ran the numbers for a 500K house, which we cant even buy in our area would need to move farther out, increasing my commute and the distance to activitiesclasses our kids attend, and its around 1000 more per month when considering all costs. For reference we pay 2400 a month in rent, and all-in were looking at a cost of nearly 3400 when you factor in the mortgage, insurance, taxes, and maintenance there was also a recent transit package passed that increased property taxes, which is not figured into the calculations.On top of that, those numbers assume a 100K down payment, and plus transaction costs that comes out to 125K upfront. We dont have this kind of money yet, although were working on getting there.I just cant see the justification of owning a house yet. Maybe if we do reach a point where we can no longer live in our current house, or where the rent is raised by a crazy amount would it make sense. There is this sense that unless you own a house you cant consider yourself to have made it, but I have a really hard time accepting that. I also love the flexibility - if we want to go live somewhere else, or if I get an opportunity to work overseas, I could take it.What are everyones thoughts?  <response>: If you dont want to buy a house, dont buy a house.Maintenance is the worst and something people gloss over a lot- I woke up today and my well pump crapped out while I was in the shower. In a few hours Ill be out around 4k once this is fixed. 