As long as you can see yourself living there for three to five years, you'll come out ahead. More than likely, it will have increased enough to provide you with a substantial down payment on your next, even nicer, home. None of this can happen if you continue to rent. So start planning today. Thinking long-term Of course, while the unexamined life may not be worth living, the overly planned life cannot be lived at all.
Stuff happens, as everyone knows.
Still, it doesn't hurt to have a general idea of where you hope to end up in the housing market. An apartment in your mid-20s. A two-bedroom bungalow in an established neighborhood in your early 30s. Followed, of course, by the obligatory Sunbelt condo where you will spend your so-called golden years. Planning like this was a lot easier before the era of frequent job transfers and corporate downsizing.