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This article is based on a great blog post of a couple of weeks back by Crystal Beran over at her blog on mynewplace.com with nearly the same title. Here is a shortened link to her blog post. You need to read this full article to see the clickable link, not just our home page summary. So go there and read Crystal's full article. And then return here to read my comments. Go ahead, I'll wait. TICK. Tick. tick. I'll repeat the 10 reasons she makes with some comments of my own after. She begins with freedom to move wherever and whenever you want. Then safety in numbers, no property taxes, lower cost of living, community, cheaper utilities, neighbors, amenities, free grounds keeping, and last but certainly not least, no foreclosure. These are ten solid reasons; let's consider some of them a little closer.

No? And you're relieve it's not, right? Most people would be, but $3,429 is the average Manhattan apartment rent for last month according to a Wall Street Journal article attributed to Citi Habitats brokerage. And being the average, there are lower and HIGHER rents for Manhattan apartments. A lot higher. That's a new all-time average high, so Manhattan rents have clearly recovered from the recession. And with a vacancy rate of 1.16%, it looks like rent rates won't be going down any time soon. They'll be going up; the demand clearly out strips supply.

U.S. home ownership is expected to normalize at 63% according to Bank of America analysts as reported by Justin T. Hilley in this morning's HousingWire "Monday Morning Cup of Coffee" report. To put this information in perspective, U.S. housing ownership peaked at 83% in 2003 and was calculated to be 65.4% in the first quarter of this year, 2012, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The Bank of America goes on to say that if the 2.2 million homeowners in foreclosure and the 1.5 million homeowners seriously delinquent on their mortgages were to immediately become renters, the homeownership rate could fall to 62%.