I was going to buy a condo, but EVERY SINGLE ONE I could afford got snapped up by wealthy investors.
Ran into the same problem recently looking at some apartments. In any case my city is also experiencing a property bubble, so any house I buy will kill half of my salary for the next 30 years.
Honestly? I fucking give up on buying anyplace that already has a house/condo on it. I'm saving up to buy an acre of vacant lot and put one of
these bad boys on it. And I will wire it for solar from the get-go.
Admittedly, though, the fact that dome homes look fuckin' cool is as much a factor in my decision as the efficient design and the horrors of the Florida housing market.
Yes, I do want to own a home. Mainly because I want to be able to paint walls, hang things, etc. without having to worry about changing everything back for the landlord, and I want to be able to own the number, size, and kind of pets I want without being arbitrarily limited by paternalistic COA's and HOA's. That, and after a childhood of moving around every couple years, I want to stay PUT. I was badly socially stunted for YEARS due to a combination of: kids my age and kids my grade level being at two different levels of cognitive development, bullies constantly making fun of me FOR my social awkwardness, and the constant belief that I probably wouldn't stay in town long enough to make a
real friend anyway. (Since kindergarten, I have lived in 7 different homes in 3 different states, 5 of those during my K-12 years--and that's only counting places my family stayed in for 6 months or longer.)
I can definitely change one of these factors for my children. Owning a home, to me, means I'm staying in one place for a couple decades. (This is not what it means for my father. He has owned 9 different homes in the last 27 years, selling each to buy a bigger, more expensive house. Fuck that.)