bearded dragons are awesome pets. not many reptiles adjust to captivity and interact with humans as well as those guys.
I keep on hearing that, and the pet store owner also said that yesterday. It's a shame that the housing is quite expensive, otherwise I'd definitely consider getting one soon.
look around; tanks can sometimes be found for almost nothing from people who have kept reptiles, or sometimes yard sales. so long as it's clean, secure, and safe, there's no reason it has to be gorgeous. you can do a lot with a tank also to prettify it.
a really well-befriended dragon will spend a lot of time outside their enclosure as well, hanging out with you (or on you). they can also be leash-trained and such. i'm not a big fan of keeping reptiles as pets, especially the brazilian snakes and others that aren't so good at living with humans, but dragons are even more resilient to life with people and communicative with them than iguanas. probably tortoises are the only ones i would say surpass them in intelligence.