Yeah boy am I glad I pulled the trigger on a real estate purchase when I did. My costs (mainly HOA, and to a lesser extent taxes) have gone up very slightly in the last few years, but nowhere near the 30-40% increases I used to get smacked with renting over the same timeframe.

It's like 1.5-2x as expensive as it was to rent in this (already expensive) area 3 years ago.

I'm determined to never rent again. Landlords are unbelievably greedy.