When making the decision either to rent or buy a place to live, there are two broad categories of factors that must be considered. The first and most obvious category represents the financial aspects of your decision. The second category is a set of personal and emotional factors, which are more intangible but play an important role in the decision to rent or buy.

Here, let’s focus on the emotional factors and personal preferences, which are based on your personality, abilities and values that collectively determine the impact of your decision on your quality of life.

Environment: City versus Suburbs

The environment you choose to reside in plays a major role in your quality of life. Consider the following thoughts:

* Your personality.
* Do you like the character of the city: with its nightlife, quaint cafés and diverse cultures.
* Do you prefer the safety, conformity, green space and free parking in suburbia?
* Do you prefer to walk to work, take the subway or ride the train?
* How important is privacy, and how far do you like to live from your neighbours?

Amenities versus Customization

Renting generally offers a substantially greater number and variety of amenities than buying. Upscale apartment buildings or condominiums offer amenities like swimming pool, clubhouse, tennis courts, basketball court and on-site gym at a comparatively lower monthly rent than a mortgage for a property with the same attributes.

On the other side of coin, there are affordable homes with private outdoor spaces that you can customize to your liking. There aren’t many apartment buildings that come with acres of property in the country that will let you do your own landscaping, keep horses or grow a garden.

Flexibility versus Stability

Renting a place to live gives you significantly more freedom to get up and go at a moment’s notice. The financial consequences of breaking a lease are minimal and can be addressed by simply writing a check.   Homeowners wanting to leave their current residence face the much more complicated process of selling their property.

On the other hand, with the flexibility of renting comes also some instability. The landlord can always raise the rent or ask you to move before you are ready to do so. If you own a house and make the payments, you can stay as long as you desire.

Personalized Aesthetics versus Less Work

Buying a house gives you the opportunity to choose a unique and distinct architectural style and to personalize it. But this freedom comes with the responsibility of keeping up with maintenance and repairs. Although renting gives you no control over exterior aesthetics, you don’t have to worry about dealing with wear and tear on your residence or problems resulting from bad construction. Renting still gives you plenty of opportunity to choose furnishings and decorate your interior environment in a manner that suits your style. And, as a renter, all you have to do when something goes wrong is notify your landlord.

Emotional Satisfaction versus Less Worry

Homeownership is often called “the American dream”. There’s just something emotionally appealing about putting down roots, getting involved in the community and having a place to call your own. Of course, homeowners also need to worry about the long-term character of the neighborhood and keep up with maintenance in order to sustain property values. If you’re simply looking for a place to rest between days at work and nights hitting the town, renting may be the perfect answer. Just keep paying the rent and let somebody else do all the worrying.

The final words, however, will be yours. The decision is yours to make. If you can make the rent payments or qualify for the mortgage, you can live anywhere that you want to live.