Ask HN: Should I buy a home?
It costs a lot of money to buy a home.  I don&#x27;t know what it costs in a place like San Fransisco, but it could be something like 5-10 thousand dollars in just closing costs.<p>Because of this it doesn&#x27;t usually make sense to buy a home unless you are planning on staying there for at least 5 years or so.  It&#x27;ll take that long to effectively break even over just renting.<p>Keep in mind that instead of feeling bad about losing possible equity in a house you could invest that money instead of spending it on closing costs.  So in a short term situation you can potentially earn more money by NOT buying a house, even if the monthly payments are the same.<p>Housing prices are in a bubble right now.  But it&#x27;s impossible to know when that bubble is going to burst.  It could be 10 years from now. It could be next week.<p>Also keep in mind that 1 million dollar house in Bay area gets you a reasonably nice place.  While a 1 million dollar house in the country in the mid-west gets you a small mansion, acres of land, and horses if that is your thing.<p>So really it boils down to first deciding were you want to be in 5-7 years. Then doing the math.