We buy because it's and investment as well as a home. Property increases in value, whereas rent doesn't "make" you anything. We do live further out of town than we would like, but we "deal" with the travel in order to get a larger sized property that fulfils out needs better and therefore our money works better for us, we more comfortable and we are investing in the long term, as a property makes money and increases in value. I sold my home for $120,000 more than I paid for it after 5 years! That helped us pay off DHs unit and more recently we have bought a new place, and would not have been able to afford the larger sized property if we had not had the extra invested in the house. We feel that the the long run we will have the capital in the house for retirement etc plus we can do whatever we want to the house and don't have to rely on others to fix things or make it look nice for us.

That's our rationale though.... Our family and friends live in similar circumstances and not too far, so we are still close to people that matter and our lifestyle. It might be different if we moved a long way from those things.