Solar has finally reached the break even point for even places like Michigan where you'll never get more than 40% of the panel's power due to the latitude and frequent cloud cover. Break even in this case means that in the panel's 20 year life time it will generate enough power to offset its own initial cost assuming about 10-15 cents per kilowatt hour utility power cost. Given that utility rates are only increasing, then if you're going to stay in that location for 10-20 years and you can afford to buy them, then in the long run you'll save money.
If you aren't going to stay there long, but you can show a definite savings on electrical bills, you can recover some of your costs when you sell (ie, it's a selling feature), but depending on the market it might not pay for itself.
The federal rebates are significant, and without them solar panels are really only break-even in sunny areas. If you're outside the US and you don't get subsidies or tax credits, then it might not be worth it yet.
All that being said, if you had $5,000 to spend on solar panels, but your house was poorly insulated, or had windows that are more than a few years old, or low efficiency heater/air conditioning/water heater, then you would save more money and reach break even more quickly by spending on bettering those situations.
Further, solar heating is cheaper and saves more energy than solar electricity, so even if the above is taken care of, it's worth looking at solar heating panels for water heating before you do solar electricity panels. Again, better bang for your buck.
Once you've decided to go with electric solar panels there are a lot of decisions to make. Unless you're spending 10's of thousands of dollars, you're not going to disconnect from the electrical grid (and you'd need a
lot of space for that many panels and a huge battery bank).
Most installations are grid tie only, which means that as long as the grid is working, then your solar panels will generate power and offset your electric bill. If you're using less than they are producing they'll feed into the grid and your meter will run backwards, depending on your utility's rates. However, if the power goes out, your solar panels will sit idle - you can't use them without the grid because the inverter depends on the grid to work, and turns off as a safety feature.
If you have power outages frequently enough that you'd like to use the panels if the grid goes down, you can get a grid tie with offline capability. It'll require a transfer switch (as if you were installing a gas generator), and usually a small battery bank. Usually these systems are noticeably more expensive, so it's not worth doing unless you do have frequent outages.
Some people have outages so frequently and lengthy that they install full systems with big battery banks to act as backup even at night. These systems cost almost double a normal system due to the battery bank, and chances are it's not something worth considering for your situation.
The vast majority of systems installed today are grid tie only, with no possibility of usage during a power outage. If this is important to you, talk to your installer, and shop around. Break-even might be possible on this system, but if it uses batteries, they need yearly checkups and maintenance, and will have to be replaced occasionally even if not heavily used. Make sure you take this cost into account and ask your installer questions about it.
If you are doing the installation yourself and willing to shop around, you can save 1/3 to 1/2 the cost of the entire solar system, but it requires a good bit of expertise so connect with someone you know and trust who's done their own system. It's not rocket science, but you'll need to be comfortable with electrical skills, roofing skills (if you're mounting it to your roof), and putting wires through walls and so forth.
I can't speak towards reliability, I have no personal experience with them for the long term. Well built panels should last 20 years, and most come with decent warranties. I'd depend on that, and make sure your system has some amount of diagnostics or reporting so you can tell if there's a problem and have someone out to diagnose and fix it. There are no moving parts, so if you get good panels, have them professionally installed with a good warranty, you should have no problems.
The next generation is going to be cheaper, but not drastically more efficient. They can drop in price even more, so like anything the longer you wait, the cheaper they'll get. If you look at the trends for solar panel pricing:
http://cleantechnica.com/2014/09/04/solar-panel-cost-trends-10-charts/
You'll see that we're leveling off. Waiting a year probably isn't going to be a better choice than doing it now, but it's not guaranteed to be better now than in a year either. It's hard to tell where the 'knee' of the graph is while we're in the middle of it. The fact that companies in California and other sunny places are leasing solar systems to people for cheaper than their electric bill suggests that they're well past the knee for their sunny area. Chances are good we're right at the sweet spot in the northern latitudes. I know if I installed my own panels, my break-even would be in 9 years, even without federal subsidies.
So if you've got the cash and the desire, go for it. Just keep in mind that windows, insulation, high-efficiency heating, cooling and other appliances, and solar hot water systems are generally better bang for the buck if you haven't already tackled them.
They never completed the part where the collected heat was stored in the downstairs rock bed, but the attic was still a great place to hang your laundry, dry out your harvested peaches/walnuts, etc.