We already lived by such thin margins. One bit of bad luck and we’d have nothing. We knew this as a reality. In a normal market we would’ve put off buying for a year or two, saving money until we found a house we loved, but if home prices kept going up, we’d soon be priced out. It felt like a risk not to buy. Our unspoken agreement with our landlord was that if we didn’t complain, he wouldn’t raise the rent. But he wasn’t young. His business selling baseball equipment to elementary schools had taken a hit during COVID. We feared at any point he could jack up the rent to market value, or retire and sell the house from under us. Even two-bedroom-apartment rentals in our area were now comparable to a mortgage payment. {read}