Does it need to be a social change where renting is on equal social footing to home ownership? (I know it varies place to place, but in some places people say "rent money is dead money" - of course so is bank interest ;).

Yes, there really does. Home ownership is the conventional wisdom, and its what got me to buy a house two years ago, and I really wished I hadn't (and I've been wishing that about a year after I bought out the house). Fortunately, the market I am in never really got too much of the housing bubble so unless everything goes to complete shit I'll be ok.

The amount of bad advice in this area is astounding. By far one of the best pieces of advice I've ever been given (and of course, summarily ignored) was to do the math on home ownership vs renting and putting the difference into another investment vehicle.

Played right it 1) can make you more money, although that's tough to quantify right now with everything going to hell 2) make you more flexible, since you're not on the hook for a major life change if you want to change your investment vehicle and 3) diversifies you and provides more security -- your investment is not coupled to where you sleep at night.

Same deal here. Bought in 2005 with the intent to live in the house for a few years and move to a different part of the country. Dreamed about a home run, hoped to break even, didn't expect the worst financial crisis since the great depression. Fine time to be holding the bag. :)

Not everyone wants to own a house for investment reasons. House ownership appeals to a lot of people who want to have their own place in the world. My dad is a "builder" -- he barely finished high school and he's never had a non-labor job, but he is very good at designing and building all manner of things. In the 12 or so years he's lived in his current home, he has completely redone the kitchen (a couple times), took an open-area second floor and made three bedrooms and a bathroom out of it, added an addition (an indoor/outdoor backporch area) on the back, converted the old bathroom and backporch downstairs into a beautiful, much larger bathroom, and so on. And that's just in the house, not to mention other changes he's made on the property (fences, a new dog kennel, redone garage, landscaping, etc.).

Some people just like to tinker, and when you don't own something, that's not really a possibility. After renting at my current residence for over a year, there are some things here that annoy me: we have no porch to speak of, we have a huge kitchen that is laid out horribly (not even a dishwasher), there is a nice basement that is just begging to be finished, and all the walls everywhere are white. It sure would be nice to have a place of my own where I could fix these "problems", both adding to the value and increasing my happiness, all without having to move.

And there is just something satisfying about owning something, about working towards a common goal with someone you love, in building something together. When the area you live in is pliable to your wants and needs, happiness is just a little bit of hard work away.

If you want to do the math yourself here is a spreadsheet that will help. http://randolfe.typepad.com/randolfe/2006/04/bubblizer_a_req...

There is a lot of pressure, I remember it when I was younger. Now I have my own home outright, so I feel like I am not really allowed to state an opinion, otherwise its "do as I say not as I do" etc... so I should just shut up. I don't really know what is best. But debt sucks, mostly, but can work for you.

A mortgage is essentially (depending on the rate of amortisation) renting your home form the bank.