[ ... ]
> ... home ownership hasn't tremendously appealed to me so far.
[ ... ]
> But a spike in rental rates would not be great for me when my
> lease is up in 6 mos.
I think you just answered your own question. The story I like to tell is of my parents, who in 1973 bought a 4br/1ba in a decent neighborhood in urban Buffalo, NY for $18.5k. 30 yrs later (er, 2003, not too long ago!) [had they stayed married and stayed living in that house, but I digress] they would have made the final $200/mo payment. The current assesment is about $90k.
That kind of long-range price stability is important to many people -- it sounds like it's important to you, too, but not important enough to do something about.
/jordan