Thanks for sharing your experience Alex. I'd argue that if you're happy living in a cheaper place, you likely bought a more expensive place than you needed. As for the 1% maintenance cost, it's of course possible, and even more, but that shouldn't be your average. One way of preventing that is to purchase a good home warranty. That's a guaranteed cost of about $50/month, but can save you thousands of you need a major repair or replacement. That's been my strategy, and it has paid off multiple times.