@TDWfromTPM: I sign long-term leases. They hold when a new owner comes. I have a lot of influence over when we move. And the one instance where I was asked to end a lease early, the landlord paid ME a month's rent and for my movers.

As to the cost of a move, it's about the amount I would save in one month by choosing to rent over owning.

Also, the rents for comparable places in my neighborhood are about the same as what I pay now, so it's not like I have some obscure, fluke deal (i.e I'm paying the market rate). And the market rate to rent is about half the cost of what the place would cost to carry if I bought it (and after I'd plunked down several hundred thousand dollars).

Make no mistake: I don't think renting is perfect or ideal. But that doesn't make me blind to the fact that I am able to literally save and diversely invest tens of thousands of dollars a year by choosing renting over owning in this haywire market.