Reply #1: Too many people believed the message that they

[Lydia Leftcoast]

HAD TO buy a house, and that if they didn't, they were not responsible adults, were wasting money, and were missing out on all those wonderful tax advantages (like property taxes? like paying a dollar to the bank for every 35 cents you get in tax breaks?) and that it HAD TO have certain features.

I resisted the siren call of the "buy now" crowd, and everyone, including my friends and family, thought I was crazy.

Look at the suburban houses built in the 1950s or so, small starter homes about the size of the average apartment. Now it's McMansions or condos or nothing.