I think the reason some people buy houses is because they're just sick to death of moving. I know I'm very soon going to become one of these people... well, maybe in a year or so.
I've only hired movers for two moves: going from NH to CA and going from CA to MA. In both cases, the cost of shipping the stuff was so large that adding in a bunch of big hefty guys packing everything up and moving it down a million flights of stairs into a truck parked miles away was barely .001% of the cost.
For every other move (and I've moved a lot over the last 10 or so years), I've moved myself with the help of friends and family. Every time, I've used muscles I didn't know I had and gotten bruises the size of small third world nations in places I didn't think could bruise. Crazy stuff!
This time I vow not to get any new stuff and to give away half of the stuff I have! I swear I'm going to do it this time!