Here's something no one tells you before you make the biggest purchase in your life:  Owning a home kinda sucks.  I mean, sure, you get a roof over your head and some nice tax breaks, so it's not all bad.  But houses in general have a tendency to gradually return to the natural state from which their component materials were taken.  In other words, everything breaks.  Metal piping rusts and corrodes.  Electrical wiring disintegrates.  Wood siding gets eaten by neighborhood animals.  Roofing simply wears down over time.  If you're handy and have lots of free time, owning a home is a great idea.  You'll have plenty of opportunities to fix leaky pipes and spray expanding-foam insulation into every crack and hole you can find.  But if you're like me, and you have a job, and you don't consider "fixing your house" the same as "doing something fun," home ownership sucks.  When I'm at home, I just want to be; I don't want to fix.