renting vs. owning

Becoming a homeowner is a rite of passage in America, while renting gets no respect. But when you look at how we really live, it turns out that, even ignoring the recent crash, home ownership isn't the great deal for our finances that we've been led to believe.

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The housing market crash has made millions of people reassess their choice of whether to rent or own their home. If you're trying to decide which course is right for you, DailyFinance breaks down the major factors you should consider in our new series, Is It Worth It?

For generations of Americans, home ownership has been extolled as a sound investment and source of moral virtue, stability and community. Renting was seen as anathema, a distinct second choice. But in the wake of the real estate collapse, those long-held assumptions have been called into question.

For generations now, our national values have placed an emphasis on home ownership. Renters were the people who were rootless or just not being quite ready to "settle down." As home ownership has become less of a financial asset and more of a liability over the last few years, there has been a...

In an op-ed piece in today's Wall Street Journal, Rutgers economist Eugene N. White argues that "the poor are better off renting." While he's certainly right that homeownership is not always the best option for everyone at every stage of life, some of his arguments are misguided: While suffering...

In my Detroit-area neighborhood, there are almost no homes for sale. Out of more than 1,000 homes in a two-mile area there are probably only a half-dozen on the market. Yes, you read that right. Downtrodden Detroit, Michigan, where real estate set new records for declines has neighborhoods where...