I bought back in 2014. Ultimately the question I asked myself was: would I rather have a house in a place I wanted to live but overpaid for, or would I rather wait and get priced out of the place I wanted to live?
Ultimately I chose the former. Because at the end of the day, a house represents shelter to me. And roughly speaking, shelter is fungible. If the value of my shelter goes up by 50%, the value of the other shelter around me goes up 50%. If it goes down by 50%, so does the shelter around me. So buying into the market gives me a foot in the door to, roughly speaking, be able to move to similarly desirable dwellings regardless of where they are.
This is obviously a bit simplistic, but I think its a fair way to look at it.
Ultimately I chose the former. Because at the end of the day, a house represents shelter to me. And roughly speaking, shelter is fungible. If the value of my shelter goes up by 50%, the value of the other shelter around me goes up 50%. If it goes down by 50%, so does the shelter around me. So buying into the market gives me a foot in the door to, roughly speaking, be able to move to similarly desirable dwellings regardless of where they are.
This is obviously a bit simplistic, but I think its a fair way to look at it.