Bill and I have lived in the same apartment for nearly 20 years, and although I never thought I’d be a renter for this long, it does have a few advantages. In our dreadfully cold and snowy winters, all we have to do is dig out and move our cars so the snowplows can come through our parking lots. If we had a home of our own, we’d have to have a snowblower and do a lot more work to get out of the driveway. When something breaks down in our little corner of the world, maintenance takes care of it for us, and given we’re the longest term renters on the property, they tend to give us a little priority in responding to our requests. There are drawbacks to being a renter, chief among them being we have no equity for our $1585 rent like we would with a mortgage, and we live right on top of our neighbors in a small space, but at the time we moved to Sunderland, an apartment was the only residence we could afford. We dream of building a beach house in Hilton Head when we retire but for now I’m grateful for the little niche we’ve carved for ourselves at Sugarloaf Estates.