But I wouldn't trade it for the world now that I'm finally in a home of my own. After a lifetime of living in apartments, living in my own house (in Levittown of all places, the original suburb) has been a real and pleasent change. In my last apartment, I had to deal with thin walls and neighbors who were not exactly considerate when it comes to noise levels at 11pm on weeknights, a heating system that rendered my apartment a stifling hellhole in winter (have you ever wanted to run the AC in January?), and a landlord who had certain issues about building maintainence. But it was what I could afford, my commute was easy and I just accepted that wherever I lived, I would have to deal with these kinds of tradeoffs.

I did not go into buying a home lightly. I spent a year doing my homework and realizing that to get the kind of home I wanted (nothing too big or too fancy, but something that wouldn't require a three hour commute each way into Manhattan). I knew right off the bat that I would be paying much more for a house than I was paying for rent (and yes, I did count my taxes and insurance and utilities) and I did know that if anything broke or needing doing around the house, it would be on my shoulders to handle. I was someone for whom changing a lightbulb was a big deal, so I went to the book store and got myself a big thick book on home repair. And I took the plunge.

The end result? I sleep well at nights because I don't have loud neighbors. Some of my utilities are actually LESS in the house - my electric bill is a fraction of what I was paying in the apartment because I need to run the AC a grand total of 2 months out of the year. I can renovate and decorate anyway I wish to.

Sure, it's work. I either have to mow my lawn or pay the lawn service $25 a week to mow. When my toilet broke, I opened up the tank and pulled out my repair book and figured out what was wrong. A quick run out to Home Depot for a part and in an hour I had my toilet fixed (unlike the time when I had to wait two weeks for my landlord to fix a minor plumbing problem). I have to figure out things and put in the effort myself.

But on weekends, I'm not stuck in a little box if I don't feel like going out. I like to go to local nursuries and pick up plants for my garden where I love to putter. I can just sit in the backyard with a book and enjoy the sun. I keep a bird feeder well stocked so I have cardinals, jays, doves and grackles as regular visitors to my front yard. If I want to have friends over, I can just fire up the grill and mix up a pitcher of sangrea. My neighborhood is quiet and even though I have a longer commute to work, my stress levels have gone down tremendously.

Owning a house isn't right for everyone and I respect the writer's feelings. He clearly wasn't prepared for the sheer amout of work that owning a house entails (or the expenses) but it was most definately the right decision for me. My house is not an investment where I'm looking to make a financial profit right now, though I'm sure that by the time I'm ready to sell 10-15 years from now the real sale value will have increased. It's my home and that has a value beyond money. You have to see a house as a home first and an investment a very distant second.