The Fostex MR Series
Fostex is one of the top names in multitrack recorders and has been since I can remember. If your goal for home recording is to write songs and lay them down on you own or with a couple helpers the MR8 can do the trick with 8 separate tracks and 16 bit (cd quality) converters. Very light and portable so you can take it over to the gig or your buddies place for a session if you need to.
Fostex MR-8mkII 8-Track Digital Recorder $249.00
Fostex MR16HD 16-Track Digital Recorder $399.00
The Fostex 16 track recorders are super versatile and can do just about everything you'll need to do in your home studio. This one has a built-in 40 GB hard drive.
You can record 4 tracks at once and 4 of the inputs are analog. It lets you mixdown all 16 tracks to another file which you can access for mixdown so your number of tracks are really endless if you use this option.
There's also the Fostex-MR16HD/CD model comes with a built-in cd drive and burner and looks identical to this one.