They should list the local hardware stores right in the for sale listings - “Nice three bedroom, two baths, close to Home Hardware and Rona.” 
It can be a strain on your marriage or SO relationship, too. Ask any couple that has been through a major renovation together.
There are more jobs to be done around the house and yard, which also means more potential flashpoints for arguments about things like who should do these jobs and how, when, or how often they should be done. Chores is, after all, one of the most common issues that couples fight over.
OTOH, there is an undeniable pleasure in fixing stuff yourself, and in having your own place.
To my mind, that was the deal-maker. To say, if only to myself, ‘this is our house. Ours. We own it.’
It doesn’t make any sense necessarily that this should be important, but to us at least, it was. We liked our landlords at the place we were renting; in fact, we are good friends with them to this day. But in the final analysis it was their house and, irrational though it may be, that seemed to make a difference to us.
For some people. YMMV. I find most handy-work incredibly frustrating, because it requires skills that I just don’t have. And I’m downright afraid to do anything like plumbing or electrical work, because of the possible consequences (death, serious water damage) if I made things worse.
You might enjoy it if you enjoy working with your hands, but remember that not everybody does enjoy working with their hands. And I say there’s nothing whatsoever wrong with that- takes all kinds to make a world, and all that. But you should be honest with yourself about whether you enjoy working with your hands. Don’t buy a house because you think you should enjoy working with your hands. Forcing yourself to do things you think you should enjoy but don’t is a good way to be miserable. Somehow, it’s even worse than doing things that you hate doing and admit to yourself that you hate doing.
There is something to this.
Also, if you don’t like some detail (say, the color of the carpet) in rental housing, you’re pretty much stuck with it. As a homeowner, you can change those things, if you want to (though it does cost money).
Other than things done for your own taste (which you’d not be able to do as a renter), then who, exactly, would pay for these repairs? It’s easy to say that you, as the renter, don’t have to write the check, but in the end it’s a wash. A non-stupid property owner won’t rent to you at a loss; of course he’s charging enough rent to keep up with routine maintenance and the occasional emergency. The excess rent (above profit and routine expenses) is just a finance plan for the unexpected expenses.
I will chime in along with those who say that a house should be viewed as a place to live, not as an investment. The great thing about home ownership is freedom. I do whatever I want with my own property, within legal limits. If I want to plant a garden containing only carrots and sunflowers, I can do so. If I want to own a cat, I can do so. If I want to draw on the ceiling, I can do so. If I want to shatter my bathroom mirror, I can do so. (I don’t want to do that, but the point is that I could if I wanted to.) The feeling of coming home to your own property after a long day at work is quite different from that of coming home to a rental property.
But with that said, I’m not trying to prod anybody else around. I’m just offering my opinion. For the record, I bought my first house last year at age 26.
Heh, certainly; I would not want to say that my experience is universal. Just that I knew nothing of home repair before I owned one, and fixing the place up was very satisfying.
I don’t do plumbing or electrical though, just the more cosmetic stuff.
Our place had great “bones” but it was covered in crap put on by the previous owners - particularly, crappy broadloom, crappy wallpaper everywhere (who puts wallpaper on the bathroom ceiling?!) crappy, tacky fixtures, broken wooden shutters screwed into what had been very elegant windows, etc.
Ripping out all that wallpaper, putting a nice careful paint job in (where the previous owners had painted they evidently did not believe in using masking tape), solving really puzzling mysteries like what to do with the corroded but period door handles? (Answer: wire brushes!) - and making the place really look nice again - was greatly enjoyable.
I really like this, because I was about to post that the greatest thing about renting is the freedom. If I decide that I want to backpack around the world for six months, I can. If I decide that I want to live closer to downtown, I can. If I decide I want to live with six roommates in a busy commune, or in a studio by myself, I can.
In my case, it’s freedom from obligations to live the way I currently am living, and in your case it’s freedom from restrictions that keep you from living the way you want to. Both opinions are perfectly valid, and it just goes to show that owning vs. renting is much more a lifestyle choice than it is a financial choice, and each person should choose based on what’s important to them.
We did a “lipstick and rouge” renovation on our last house. We bought it as a fixer-upper (paint, flooring, fixtures, etc.) on a five year plan, and fix it up we did. We made all the renos with an eye to selling the house, so we didn’t do it the way we wanted it; we did it the way it would be more sellable.
This house is for us - we don’t have a lot of work to do on this house, but it will all be the way WE want it - our taste, our colours, our style. In some ways I’m glad we did the first one to sell - we learned a lot from our first renovating experience.
Between renting and buying a home, there’s not one choice that’s obviously better for everybody. They are different, and you should be trying to figure out which one is better for you in your present circumstances.
The financial factors shouldn’t be the only thing or even the most important thing you consider when you decide whether to rent or buy. The different lifestyles that come with renting or buying are at least as important.
Treat your house as a place to live, not as an investment. It’s not realistic to expect to make a profit from buying a house in this economic climate, except in some exceptional circumstances. Those days are gone, possibly never to return.
Whatever you do, don’t buy a house because “that’s what you should be doing at your age”, or because “all your friends are buying houses”, or because someone’s nagging you about “when are you going to buy a house”, or because “that’s what adults do”, or because you think it will somehow make you more grown-up. Those are all bad reasons to make any sort of major life decision, whether it’s buying a house, getting married, having kids, or pretty much anything else.
Buying a house won’t make you more financially responsible, and you shouldn’t think that it will. Maybe at one time buying a house did force you to save money, but with home equity loans being available, that’s not true any more. You can use your house as an ATM, and you can get into financial trouble by doing so. Lots of people have done that in the past few years. If you are financially irresponsible and buy a house, you might just be getting more rope to hang yourself with- you’ll have access to a class of loans that renters don’t have. If you have a problem with getting in over your head with loans, more access to loans is not the solution.
With regards to the sense of satisfaction one gets from fixing stuff themselves…let me offer a different perspective.
I get a huge sense of satisfaction by being able to afford to pay people to do stuff for me at my house. I get my lawn treated, my windows washed, gutters cleaned, snow plowed and rooms painted all by people who have the right tools and the right skills to do it. I’ve got “my electrician” and “my plumber” and even “my carpenter.” It’s soooo awesome! It’s all worth every penny, too. My satisfaction comes from being such a good worker and a good saver that I can afford it all.
Of course, there’s so much you can do with a house that I still have to do stuff myself. Or rather, “get to do myself.” That’s fun as well.
I’ve never been a renter BTW. When it came time for me to seriously get the fuck out of my parents’ house at the age of 26, I never considered renting. I’m the sort of person who doesn’t like the idea of sharing walls or parking with other people. I also don’t like the idea of living somewhere where I don’t plan on staying forever. So, a house was the right decision for me.
ETA: That article Anne linked to was weird. At least the beginning. The guy was mad at himself for buying a house because he had to arrange his furniture in it? Don’t people with apartments have furniture? That was some bad writing, there.
I hear ya. I’ll add, however, that I get no sense of satisfaction from having to deal with cheating, scamming, incompetent contractors, and sadly they appear to be common shudders. Or maybe I’m the problem, because I can’t pick out the good ones reliably.
I’d be very happy to have “my” contractors, who were reliable and competent.
One of the first things I did when I got my own place was to sign up for Angie’s List. It’s a Web site that helps you choose reliable contractors from your area based on reports from people who are members and have used the contractors (as opposed to, say, Service Magic, which is a site contractors pay to be on). So far I am batting 1000 when I use contractors from Angie’s List. The one contractor I did hire w/o Angie’s List did in fact take me for a ride 
Americans are way too insistent that owning a home is the only way to financial success so people who can’t afford it and a lot of times don’t even want to are buying houses.
As someone said before, people rarely factor in the interest on the mortgage when they brag about the huge profit they made on their house sale. There’s also property taxes. There’s a women in our office who has rented a very nice house on a farm for around $350/ month for a long time. She was complaining because her husband didn’t really want to buy a house and she thought they would be financially disadvantaged by this. I pointed out to her that most houses she was looking at had property taxes that would be over 350/ month.
Also if you own a house you spend a lot of money making it just how you want it. In a rental you won’t be as picky about the cabinet hardware, the wall colors, and so on. It all ads up.
We lived in a house for 13 years and sold it for twice as much as we paid. Taking everything into consediration we made nothing.
So, the time to buy a house is when you want one and can EASILY afford it.