<prompt> Human: Im recently married and the natural next step is to settle down in a house of our own. My wife is excited and occasionally looks at listings we could possibly afford. We work in DC where real estate is pretty expensive and bargains are non-existent. Im terrified about being tied down to a 30 yr mortgage which also means being committed to working in the area, hidden costs of owning, and worried if buying a home now will ever gain any equity or if well be underwater for paying an overinflated price.Are benefits of owning greater over the flexibility of renting these days?What Im most terrified about is keeping a job in the same area for 30 years. Careers arent like mom and dads jobs where you stay at an organization for 10-20yrs while slowly working your way up the ladder. Today, the way to move up is to work a handful of years, then switch jobs. Sometimes that switch forces you to move. Then there lies the issue of at least breaking even on selling the house.  <response>: Im recently married and the natural next step is to settle down in a house of our own.I think that this mentality is wrong and causes no small amount of grief within our society. Buying a house is not a life stage or a check box that needs to be filled in to advance to the next level. While most people will probably be in a position that buying makes sense at some point in their lives, where that point is can be dramatically different, so assuming that the correct path has you buying in the near future simply pressures you to do something without having thought it through.All the concerns you mention are completely valid and should be considered alongside the potential benefits of a house. If you have a strong reason to think youll likely move away in the next 3-4 years then thats definitely a major point against buying. Just like you should know and understand the tax benefits of buying, you should understand the risks and drawbacks in order to make the decision about renting versus buying.Personally, I routinely tell people that if in doubt they should rent. The consequences of renting when you should buy are almost certainly far less intense than the consequences of buying when you should rent. 