Well I'm not sure she is knocking buying, she is just trying to get people to think about the "true cost". Maybe your maintenance cost won't equal $1200 a year. My 1st 2 yrs I had to replace the furnace, cooling coil, water heater, dishwasher). Which is close to that figure (again that is not what you will run inot with every house). Now imagine if you need to replace the roof after a couple years. Maybe you can get cheaper insurance, but thats a maybe. I personally wouldn't advise going with the safe auto of home insurance. The point of the article is to point out the extra expense beyond (principal and intrest) that most don't think about.