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I've owned three homes. I hate moving around. I love to travel but I want a base of operations. I can't imagine living in a city for a year and then moving to another one. That is my sheer torture while it might be Dollydo's heaven. I agree that owning a home is a lifestyle choice. For people that love to move around, owning a home makes no sense whatsoever.
Do what makes sense for you with the lifestyle you want to have and don't worry about whether other people think it is a good choice or not.
It can cost you the same to own or rent, but after 30 years of paying rent you'll still be a tenant. If you pay your mortgage off after 30 years you have a home to live in during retirement that is only going to cost you maintenance and taxes to live in. If something happens to your health in retirement, you have an asset you can sell.
Owning a home isn't just about short term gains. Imagine how hard it will be to keep having to look for new rentals when you're 65 or 70 and on a very limited income, and you don't have any children you can move in with.
I owned a small home when I was in my mid-twenties and it worked well, but then I moved across the country and I wanted flexibility, so I rented for 7 (4 apartments) of the 9 years I was there and then I bought a place with my fiancee. Since then, and a few kids later, home ownership has been the way to go for us. We buy homes that need some level of updating and I do most of it myself (which I learned in that first small house) and it allows us to removate and decoate as we wish, and now my wife runs a very small biz out of our house, which has required flexibility with our living space. So owning works now, but renting worked before.
I would agree that if you plan on staying put for a long time, and you can afford to buy the kind of home that you will want to live in for a long time, buying a home can be both financially adventageous (especially in retirement, after you have paid it off), and you will have the freedom to do whatever you like with your home (improvements, etc.) If you want low-maintenance, a condo might be the better option for you.
Its more than worth it for me. Living in an apartment taught me that I'm the type that absolutely must be able to control my own heat and ac lol. My house is small so keeping up with repairs/remodeling is easy for me. Do what you feel is best for you though.
My situation is different. I don't think I want to own a home mainly because I don't plan on having any children and therefore I don't need the space. But if I see a nice loft for sale, I'd consider buying it.
Question: Was/Is it worth it to own a home?
Meaning, time spent with up-keep, repairs,costs etc......?
Would you do it over again?
Yes, I will always choose to own my own home. I prefer owning my own home because I like having FREEDOM & CONTROL over my living environment.
Ownership gives me a peace of mind that comes from NOT having a LL. I never have to worry that someone else's finances will force them into foreclosure and force me to move. I have pets so, I don't have to worry about whether or not they are allowed. Taxes and HOAs will change, but my mortgage won't. After a few more years, I won't have a mortgage payment at all.
There is a nice buffer of space between me and my neighbors so I don't have to hear everything that they do or say. I can landscape, paint, redecorate, or remodel without asking for anyone's permission. Also, I have a space for out-of-town guests to stay when they visit and for entertaining. I like the space and I like having a home to come back to. It is peaceful.
For me, the upkeep, HOAs, taxes, etc. are worth it. If I added up everything, I could probably rent for about the same price for a while. If I didn't own a home I wouldn't have as much space to entertain, as much freedom over my space, or the peace of mind that ownership gives me.
If I were to jet-set all over the world, I would still want a personal home that I could come back to at the end of it all.
Some people just don't want the responsibility and I can understand that.
Whether home ownership is worth it depends on the individual, and has aspects of both emotional and economic considerations. For some people owning a house might be emotionally satisfying but not a very good financial deal (seen a lot of that lately), or might be financially a very good deal but not emotionally right for the person. Houses tend to tie you down and some people feel smothered and stifled by permanence of their residence. I myself just went through that after three decades of owning one house, was great for a couple decades but in the last decade I was just drowning in "I wanna live somewhere else!"
While owning a house has aspects of being an investment it should not be confused with financial investments such as stocks and bonds, because houses have inherent utility as a place to live and that has a financial value. As we've recently seen in the explosion of the housing bubble, houses can become big money losers if the owner purchased it intending to make a fast profit after holding it a short time. I suggest that nobody should ever buy a house for any other reason than wanting to live there, and intending to live there for 5-7 years.
IMO the part of home ownership I like is that I can make it exactly the way I want, decorate it, change the floor plan. I like the privacy and distance from neighbors that is difficult to impossible to get in apartments (although perhaps rental houses are same in this aspect). I like that there's nobody on the other side of a too-thin wall, ceiling or floor, so I have better peace, quiet and privacy.
I'm already missing my house sold earlier this year, don't like the sacrifices to privacy and control of my environment that I've lost. I hope it won't take me too long to decide where I want to move to, and hope the economy will make some kind of sense by the time I want to get back into the housing market. I surely don't want to buy a house when the market is in free fall, but I can't imagine being happy for the next few or several years not living in a house I own.
So IMO the question of whether home ownership being worth it depends on the individual, and depends on both emotional and economical factors. In my case it was worth it and I'm going to do it again one day soon. Only you can decide if home ownership is worth it for you.
I hope to never be a renter. I love my home, the privacy, the freedom I have to do what I want, when I want with my surroundings. yeah, I will probably always have a mortgage but, I always know what the note will be and no one can tell me what I can or cannot do to not (no HOA) where I live. I'm in the process of buying a second home for rental income because, there are real steals on the market and rents are going up so, for me its a no-brainer.
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My house is my castle
I have pets so, I don't have to worry about whether or not they are allowed. 
Taxes and HOAs will change, but my mortgage won't. After a few more years, I won't have a mortgage payment at all. 
I can landscape, paint, redecorate, or remodel without asking for anyone's permission. 
Also, I have a space for out-of-town guests to stay when they visit and for entertaining. I like the space and I like having a home to come back to. It is peaceful.
