I have wanted a house for as long as I can remember. For many reasons. Because I can do what I want with it, fill it with whatever I want, invite whoever I want over for dinner, and on and on and on. To me a house is status, it's independence, but most importantly, it's control. It's worth the trade off of having to worry about maintenance and such.

Each year I get older though and each year the world looks a little weirder and a little less familiar. Jobs and economy, politics and social discourse, technology. 15 years is a long time and in my eyes too long of a time to be in debt to someone. When I don't know what I'm going to look like five, ten, or fifteen years from now, and I certainly don't know what the world is going to look like five, ten, or fifteen years from now, the prospect of a mortgage seems riskier and riskier. Rising home prices don't help, because the higher the price I have to pay for a house, the greater risk I'll take if I take out a loan.

15 years is 120 months. It's 5475 days. It's 131,400 hours. Those months, those days, those hours are all filled with countless moments where your life can change in a way you've never expected. A debt like a home loan is a pretty big risk.