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> paying for the freedom to easily up and move if something else fits my fancy.

There is something to be said for this.

However, there is also something to be said for the ability to not be kicked out of your living space directly ("we have decided not to renew your lease") or indirectly ("should you renew your lease, we will be increasing rent by $500 and installing smart locks in every apartment").

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I totally agree with you. Certainly there are tradeoffs to both owning and renting, and different people will find the tradeoffs stronger in one direction or the other.

However, the reason I made my original comment is I feel that so often, at least in the US, the downsides of home ownership are completely minimized (I think people usually vastly underestimate maintenance costs, both in time and money) while the downsides of renting are blown out of proportion (the "you're just throwing money away" false comparison).

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