Renting suddenly seems like a pretty good plan. I just ran some quick numbers -- assuming 3 years in the area, and a 70% optempo, with 14 hour work days (Ha! That's optimistic!) and a 1-in-8 duty rotation, plus some other fudge factors, it looks like fewer than 4000 actual hours in wherever I call "home" over a 3 year period. That's an interesting note.
turbo6bar -- thanks for the link. I don't know if you knew it when you forwarded that, but they have all kinds of interesting stuff in the RE section, including a "What have homes near XXX adress sold for recently?" That's kind of handy.
NeilK -- PPOT withdrawal is going to be a real challenge. Chicks don't usually go out with me these days anyway, knowing that I'm in the Navy, so that won't be a change. And I lived near Seattle for the last 4 years, so I'm not at all used to seeing sunlight anyway. Life on a submarine really represents very little difference from normal for me.
Willoughby rentals ... let me see here, I could get a 2-br apt on Willoughby for about half of my housing allowance, living 10 minutes from work. I could pocket $700/mo just on housing allowance, and have a view of the water. Wow, that's kind of tempting. In fact, that's _really_ tempting.
allaircooled -- that's an interesting data point. Looking at real estate listings online, it's tough to tell whether or not a $200K home is a junker or a real deal. The payments for a $200K home work out fine for my housing allowance, which is nice, but I'd hate to find myself struggling to sell it for $150 3 years down the road. Are you on one of the boats?
The other cog in the monkey wrench is that my orders are still up in the air. It isn't final until I actually report to the USS Norfolk and do turnover. The orders actually have a note that says, in effect, "On arrival in homeport, but before actually reporting, call the detailer to make sure there isn't someplace he'd rather you be." One more nail in the "rent for a while" coffin -- good call turbo6bar.
Seems that Norfolk is a well-traveled area. I'll buy everybody a round of drinks when I get into town.
Seriously, thanks for the help -- PPOT comes through once again.
