Traditionally, a man is not considered marriageable until he own a house/apartment (skipping the true commie era when no one owned anything), so the desperation to get into buying is really high. 

Moving every year or two due to buying another house at owner occupied rates is inconvenient, but can be a real wealth builder.My multimillion $ real estate investor neighbor just passed away and she and her husband moved 27 times in the same town during their marriage. 

We’re 2 years into marriage, first time home owners, first time landlords, first time investors…and potentially first time parents. 

We did a similar process as you in many of those same suburbs early in our marriage. 

Get your cheap legal marriage and do the frou-frou ceremony later, if that's what you want, but remember that the point of a marriage is the marriage and not the wedding.

I’m about one year into marriage.

My wife and I are in our first year of marriage and we decided to rent an apartment instead of buying a home so we could knock out debt.

A high percent of people in this world don't have the jewels to say they made mistakes and they are so full of fear they would rather bear the pain of living with someone rather than bearing the pain of breaking up.For my first wife, I will be a man and admit that I married her because I had sex with her and thought marriage was the right thing to do.

It was my wife's house prior to our marriage and instead of selling we decided to rent the property out.

It's a vote that, to the extent that millenials delay home buying, family formation, marriage, etc, and thus rent for longer, those patterns are going to be more pronounced with gen z. {1} Hey, what was that earlier comment about "especially if the monthly payments you collect could go up over time"?