By this, I mean moving from one house to another...
Moving is expensive in both time and money. You need pack up all of your things, clean up your old house, transport everything you own to a different location, unpack it all, and figure out where to put it in your new house. My last move was a local move and it cost around $2,000 for the moving truck and movers. This was after we moved a lot of the boxes and small stuff ourselves.
In my experience, it takes a few months to really get everything organized after a move. If you buy another house, you may start over again with a new mortgage that will push out the date when you will have your house paid off.
Sometimes you need to move if your job changes or if your family grows and you need more bedrooms. I think moving is often a better idea than trying to build on to a house, depending on your location and situation.
I think we could have saved a lot of money over the years by making fewer moves. In addition to moving expenses, when you sell a house, you end up paying around 7% commission to the real estate agent in most places. This can quickly eat up any increase in your property value.
If you want to save the most money, you would likely be better off buying a house and living there many years until it is paid off. With this approach, you would not have to pay real estate commission when selling your house, and you would avoid moving expenses altogether.
As I mentioned, we have moved several times. I have enjoyed every place we have lived, and the traumatic process of moving creates some vivid memories. Moving is expensive, but can be worth the expense. You’ll have to decide if you want to have a single place you and your family know as home, or if you want to spend more money and have more of an adventure living in some different places that you call home.
***~~~***