We just bought a house, in a peripheral part of a big urban market. Here is why:

The house was 3x our annual income (well, 2.5).

We can probably rent it for our mortgage. (This for me is the most important thing -- basically we bought the rental we would have lived in).

My job is moderately safe.

We don't expect to sell for 5 years (which is the conventional wisdom unless you are a professional and know what you are doing).

I hated our last four landlords.

We have to live somewhere.

No kids, so no worries about kid like things except in terms of n-hood value.