Personally I'm not into hydroponics as I have a house and a large yard (2/3 acre) but I have a friend who lives in a condo and doesn't have much of a yard to speak of. His whole basement is devoted to hydroponics. As such he's growing as much or more food than I am! Yes there are significantly higher up-front costs, but he doesn't have to worry much about pests. He also loves to build his own automation solutions so he has fun with that, too. So while it's certainly more expensive, I suppose it's cheaper than buying a house!