answer:For as long as I’ve been a responsible adult, I’ve lived in apartments. I’m not a terribly “settled” person… I still feel as though I might want to pick up and go somewhere new next year (and sometimes I do), so I’ve never actually wanted a house (nor have I really been in a financial position to own one). I love being right in the heart of a city, and apartment living suits that. Having close neighbours can be either good or bad – but if bad, I can always move, whereas with a house I imagine I could be stuck with the same people on all sides for years and years. Some costs are much lower in an apartment, like heating and electricity, and I pay no property taxes; I don’t have to repair much of anything. Overall, I have no regrets. I enjoy it. I know what to look for when shopping for a new apartment, so there are rarely disappointments (except for neighbours; they are the one unpredictable factor). I like to choose apartments that have a more historic feel, even if they’re a bit run down, so townhouses are not my preference. I did live in one for two years, because it was the best option financially at that time, but I didn’t think much of it. It felt as though it had been put up in five minutes, and could come down as quickly. And they’re always painted in the most godawful beiges and browns – no character at all. I lived in a house until my late teens, and of course was not responsible for any of it – but it had a lot of land attached, and I did enjoy that. That was far from the city, though, and I’m a city person at heart. The common wisdom is that it’s better to be paying towards owning a house than to be paying rent, although some have the opposite opinion. If I had the means to buy a house in the sort of neighbourhood I like, I guess I would probably do it, but that is extremely unlikely.