I still believe buying your own land and building your own house is still a better idea

But this is only true if your wife and kids and you stay together the next 10 or 20 years too. Though land is much more expensive than it was in the 1970s, generally speaking I think this is still a better way to go.

Why?

Because you reduce your expenses so much. Often you might be able to buy the land for cash you have saved, park a motorhome or a trailer on your property while you build a more permanent structure as long as that is legal to do where you are building. However, often you are required to have water to your property (though it could be a well or even a stream I suppose) and you have to have a septic tank or access to sewage services too in order to move onto your property even with a motor home or trailer while building a more permanent home.

If you go to a lumber yard price the cost of lumber to actually build what you want.

Now, go out and look at tract homes or individual homes and see how much they are going to cost you to buy.

Look at the mortgage payments you are going to have to make (maybe the rest of your lives).

And think all this through.

My father and my best friend's father both bought property and built their own homes. Then I did this too. Then my best friend did this too. Though I eventually sold my 2 1/2 acres of land my best friend still lives on his property in a house I helped him build in the 1970s. He never needed a mortgage. He ran his businesses withtout borrowing money and so from the 1970s until now except for 5 years of paying off his property from 1975 until 1980 his land and house have been free and clear and his business or businesses have been free and clear too.

Why go into debt if you don't need to?

Why not travel the world for months at a time when you can afford to rather than paying mortgage or rent payments?

If you are physically able to do this it can completely change the direction your life goes in the short and long run and make you a whole lot happier not being saddled with debt the rest of your life.