Has the American dream changed? Are the current generation of potential home buyers passing on homeownership and opting for renting, or is the yard with the white picket fence bordered with tulips popping their heads up in the spring still real?

So much has changed in the last 10 years. Not only the real estate market, that at one point seemed to reach the heavens and then fell to earth, but also the mobility of younger workers easily relocating to follow opportunities. All of this has changed everyone’s attitude about buying a home compared to renting, but usually the real decision is made when you do the math.

All real estate is local and strictly doing the math totally depends on the area of the country you live. As the price of homes goes up, which it did to the tune of 11.4 percent nationally in 2013 compared to the previous year, renting becomes more of an attractive option.

Renting also appeals to individuals who need flexibility to move to different parts of the country chasing a weak job market. Renting provides for someone else to pay the property taxes, homeowner’s insurance and most maintenance costs. And, finally, renting frees up considerable financial assets that can be invested, frequently providing a higher rate of return than equity in the home. This is called lost opportunity costs.

Buying on the other hand is the gold standard that Americans have always strived for and regarded by many as an essential step in growing up and having a successful life. And, indeed, owning a home can be a very successful way to accumulate wealth, especially long term that can become part of an overall retirement plan.

Owning a home with a mortgage also allows for deduction of the mortgage interest and property taxes from the end of year tax bills. Homeowners don’t have to worry about rents increasing or being asked to move, and equity accumulated in their homes can be used for big ticket items that may come up in the family, like college tuition or home improvements.

On average, the value of a single family home has increased by 3.6 percent a year in the three decades through 2013. But as we all now know, homeownership is not always a slam dunk good investment and just like all investments comes with some risk.

Realtor.com has a clever buy or rent feature in its website. If you put in your zip code or town, it will calculate for you at what point renting and buying reach the breakeven point. For example, in zip code 34216 it used a purchase price of $386,857 with $77,371 down and a mortgage rate of 4.22 percent. It compared this to paying monthly rent of $1,517 and determined that buying becomes cheaper than renting after 13 years.

It analyzed the cost of buying vs. renting over the 13 years, including the lost opportunity costs of not being able to invest, and determined that if you stay in your home for 13 years, buying is the cheaper option. You will save $2,261, an average of $15 a month.

Outside of the financial common sense of owning your own home comes the real reason most everyone wants to own at some point in their lives. Living in your own home represents stability, purpose and pride. And seeing the tree you planted the week you moved in grow above the roofline is something that can’t be defined in mere dollars. That’s still the American dream, and it’s not going away.