Why Rent?

I need to vent a little.

Unfortunately, the time has come for my wife and I to find a new rental. Reasons being that she works a couple days a week in Duncan, and we live south end of Victoria, so the commute is long, costly, and I don't really like her driving the Malahat so often (I'm a bit of a worry-wart). Also, we are hoping that in the next year or two, we will require more space, as in another bedroom. And so, we are looking for a 2 bedroom and den or 3 bedroom rental that is west of View Royal.

Rentals of that sort are not easily come by! And the prices! Yikes! Are any of you looking for the same thing these days? Unbelievable!

Three-quarters of available rentals are 1 or 2 bedroom. A 3 bedroom rental will be either an entire house, or the upper portion (there are a few 3 bedroom lower rentals, but I imagine them to be dungeons.) Monthly rent for a 3 bedroom does go as low as $1100 / month, but most are more that $1400 / month, the average probably being around $1800 / month. A lot of those don't meet our location criteria.

I'm just tired of renting. Tired of fighting for parking spots. Tired of our minuscule little kitchen. Tired of living in basements. Tired of trying to find a rental for one month from now because our rental agreement states we must give one month notice, yet 90% of all the rentals available are available immediately. Tired of not putting our roots down anywhere.

You guys had better keep me on the straight and narrow. I'm on the verge of going to the bank to see what we what size of mortgage we may qualify for. I feel like we are getting close to the point where for the sake of personal happiness, we may go against better judgement.