In America, we so deeply believe that real estate is religion. We have simply closed our minds off to actually analyzing the biggest purchase of our lives and instead we take it on faith. Sometimes owning a house can be a great financial decision. In my case, I've rented for over 15 years in San Francisco, New York, and LA, and I've made more money renting than I would have owned. Never feel guilty about renting, especially now when things are quite unaffordable,. especially if you're young. Always run the numbers because you want to understand TCO total cost of ownership when it comes to owning, not simply the sticker price.