Why does everyone want me to buy a house?

I'm 41, a single mom with 3 kids. Okay, so I have to move. I'm renting a house. The land lady has decided to sell the house because she owes 150K more than it's worth. She is doing a short sale. We are moving over the summer because if the kids were going to switch schools I wanted it to happen over the summer. Everyone seems to think now is a good time to buy.

I don't.

My main reason is that I plan to move out of the area in 10 years. I live in Reno Nevada now. I want to move to the ocean once my daughter is 18 (ish) Right now her dad is in her life (all 3 of my kids have to same dad, and they see him on a regular basis) In my opinion it would be immoral for me to move them away from him.

My next reason is that I'm not sure we have reached to bottom. Nevada has been hit hard by the housing bubble, and there is a product out there called a option adjustable rate mortgage, AKA bad news. They will be resetting in 2010. In another words the shit is about to hit the fan in housing AGAIN.

To learn more about these loans, check out this graph. http://socializedlosses.blogspot.com/2009/01/update-of-mortgage-reset-graph.html

Don't get me wrong. I believe housing is affordable. I sold out of the bubble in 2004 because I could see people making 60K a year had no business buying 300K-400K houses, they just can't afford it. Now houses to incomes look much more affordable.

Now it light in my first paragraph... I want to move, I want to move more than almost anything... and I could buy a house, I could even afford to pay the mortgage, I might even pay less than rent. BUT I want to move in 10 years. I've wanted to move for years and years. I'm not sure I would be able to sell a house for what I paid, or even owed in 10 years.

People are going to be feeling very burned by housing for a very long time.

I want to give special thanks to Ican't internet.

http://www.icantinternet.org/2008/11/does-adsense-really-work/