From: Dan Campbell 
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house misc.invest.real-estate
Subject: Re: Buying a much bigger house
Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2003 13:19:47 +0000 (UTC)

In misc.consumers.house bairdspalding@yahoo.com wrote:
> 
>> If you are at all numerically inclined, I encourage you not to take any
>> of our words about it, and run the numbers yourself.
> 
> There's tons of rent vs buy calculators out there. Why not use one of them?
> The time you plan to stay in your "investment" also plays a large part. A
> house being an investment is an urban legend. I've found that people would
> rather fool themselves that buying a home is an investment, than do the
> numbers.

Well I never was able to find one that took everything I wanted into
account.  So I worked up my own.  However I imagine that many are close 
enough for government work, and would probably do for the OP unless he's 
as...'detail oriented' as I am.  Your suggestion is good.

There is certain value in working up the numbers for yourself though, as
it leads (imo) to a more complete understanding of how everything fits
together.

Plus this situation isnt quite a buy vs. rent, though it could probably
be fit into one by some creative use of the forms.