Well, most people are bad at math, investing, breaking out of the rat race. Generally speaking when it comes to financial advice, the opposite of what "everybody knows" is better. But it only takes a few minutes to compare prices to assess if renting is cheaper than home ownership. When I bought my previous home, the maintenance costs in the first two years were $50,000 -- so again renting would have been better, especially considering that I didn't keep the house in the divorce.