Rent vs Buy

Looking for a place in Louisville has been an exasperating experience. I should be grateful for the fact the internet makes it possible to browse listings from thousands of miles away. However, what it has allowed me to determine is that, (and I'm hoping I'm wrong here and that there are lots of people who just list in Penny Saver) the rental stock in Louisville pretty much sucks.

It's cheap, I'll give it that, but that is largely because it's all in poor locations and poorly outfitted. I've seen a lot of pictures of kitchens that appear to be nothing more than afterthoughts. Seriously, a kitchen is more than a sink, a couple of cabinets place in a corner, and a fridge and stove pushed up against a wall. As for the bathrooms, one would expect more than a sink with 2 inches of surrounding counter space pushed up against a toilet, which is pushed up against a bathtub, with barely enough room to turn around. In summary, it's pretty much like my previous place, but with an extra bedroom instead of a garage, and instead of being blocks from the beach in Dana Point it's 1 block from a freeway and 3 blocks from the University. I would pay more; I can pay more; but the nice stuff is really rare.

On the flip side, there is a myriad of home buying choices in any neighborhood you want. There are great, cute homes, near the school, blocks from the amazing Cherokee park in a terrific walkable neighborhood with a cost of ownership not much more than rent in the dumpy places, and much cheaper than rent in a comparable place, and that's if you can even find one. But, we don't know the city, we don't know if we're going to want to stay long term, and housing prices are still falling. So, we're going to spin our housing wheels for a while. It stinks because it means at least a year before we can settle in, start a garden, build a boat, etc. But since we're adults, for the sake of long term financial planning we're going to suck it up. Blegh!