Whether you decide on a new home, or preowned, that is up to the both of you. However, I do believe purchasing a home is a good idea. Normally you will find you can have a mortgage payment lower than what you are paying for rent. That in itself should be a motivation to get him to look.
But you need to find out why he feels you do not need to buy a home. That is the most important factor. There has to be some hidden reason he is feeling this way.
Purchasing a new home, find out what the warranty is. Ours was great, they did a 3mo inspection, 6mo inspection and yearly inspection, and fixed anything I found wrong. And I do mean anything, one of the cabinet doors was a funny grain and I did not like it, they even replaced that. My daughter ran thru the sliding glass door screen and destroyed it, they replaced it for us. Houses settle in the first year, causing minor cracks on the outside and inside. At the yearly inspection they repaired all the cracks on the inside/outside and repainted. With a new home you do get a reduced rate on your homeowners insurance, which is nice.
There are some excellent buys on preowned homes right now, and you can get some excellent deals. What you might have spent 350,000 for 4 yrs ago, might today be in the 140,000 range. Some folks are just walking away from their homes, because of lost jobs, relocation to other areas, etc.
Now is certainly the time to buy. You do have to remember that you will be able to deduct the interest from you INcome taxes as well.
As for HOA's some of them can be a pain, others are not quite so picky. Read the guidelines for them before deciding on a new home. Make sure their rules are something you can abide with. Ours is pretty easy to get along with, they are really only picky about weeds in the yards, etc. They do not allow rentals unless pre-approved by them, which in my opinion is a good thing.
best of luck on whatever you decide...but before you can do anything you need to get hubby motivated to look with you.