I think people need to be totally aware of how much living in a house is. Once a house turns 20, you have huge expenses. A new roof, new HVAC, new windows, appliances typically are ready to be replaced (if you’re lucky to get 20 out of them). Then painting the house, driveway and walkway. And that’s just off the top of my head. Yep all this was done in the last two years or so. In Florida, all this happens because weather is tough on a house.
Same here in North Idaho. Our place is about 32 years old. Fortunately, the kitchen was remodeled about 12 years ago and they did a first-class job. We bought it 8 years ago. But the paint needs a lot of work. We put a new roof on about three years ago and that cost about $35k. We had a huge windstorm three weeks ago and had to take down two large, mature red fir trees. That was another $3,000 to take them down and grind the stumps.
Yes, people really underestimate the maintenance costs and how they all hit at once at 20-30 years. There’s so much that goes wrong in that time window you have a hard time doing it all yourself, too.
We lived in the same house for over 40 years and had the same conversation repeatedly. We just did “such and such”. No that was years or decades ago.
Total up your rent, see what you get. Why do you want to pour your money into some other person’s pocket?