I'm with Bob. We've been near the collapse of civilization my whole life, and probably back to Adam and Eve.

My thought would be, you are going to pay $X per month for a place to live regardless. If civilization collapses you are going to be screwed regardless. May as well have that $X per month going into equity in case we keep surviving. And, if the fan really gets that dirty, I would rather have a place I own to hide out in than a place someone else owns and can kick me out of.