5 Reasons I'm Glad We Put Off Buying a House in Las Vegas...And A Bundle of Interesting Links

I was pondering our current housing situation and getting a bit excited at the fact that we will have our own place in a couple of weeks after nearly a year of wandering.  Then it dawned on me that everything happens for a reason and the reasons for us not buying a house as quickly as we intended are starting to pop up:

1. I am really glad the first condo we made an offer on back in July fell through.  It is in the same development as the cousin's condo that we are currently staying in.  The realtor had us sign a waiver about airport noise but at the time we really didn't hear anything so I didn't think it was a big deal.  I asked the cousin about airport noise and she said she never heard anything (note that after spending a few months with her I have noticed that she is nearly deaf! As in she hardly ever hears me talk to her!).  And now approximately every three minutes between 6am and 10pm the house-rattling noise of airplanes taking off and landing are a constant source of irritation if we happen to be home.  Yikes!
2. The second condo we made an offer on was nice but after having driven around the city on a daily basis, we have concluded that we are glad that that offer fell through as well since it really is quite a ways away from the places we always go to and it would have cost us a lot more in gas.
3. And speaking of condos, I had never lived in an apartment before (actually I lived in one for a couple of months when I was in college but the building was mostly empty so I missed all of the things that go along with living in a condo/apartment) but now that we are staying in a condo (um, apartment...same thing) I have decided that we are definitely going to buy a house.  I don't like loud neighbors, the smell of people smoking below us on their deck, the wafting of cooking odors coming up every evening...basically I am picky and I like my privacy so a house it will be.
4. We were watching the news a couple of nights ago and came across this story which was kind of shocking.  Apparently if you buy a repossessed house, due to a robo-signing problem, you may not actually own the house.  Holy cow!  This will definitely be something we look into before buying anything here.
5. I'm still not sure if we want to be tied down with a mortgage.  I feel like there is still more traveling I want to do.  We will get a "trial run" so to speak when we rent the cousin's condo for about six months then decide from there what to do.

So you see, things work out well after all even if you don't get what you originally thought you wanted.
And here's a bunch of links from my favorites file:

• 7 Habits of Highly Frugal People (that's me...at least I try to be!)
• 10 Insanely Awesome Inspirational Manifestos (this site has been crashing all day but the manifestos are a great read so check back later if you can't get through now)
•  Are you responsible for bailing out your financially irresponsible parents? (some food for thought)
• What I Learned from My Vision Board (I love vision boards!!)
• Family Search (I came across this site earlier and have been there all day--when I should be doing something for my money challenge!)