Owning vs renting a home
There are many things to consider when trying to decide if you should buy or rent a home. The first one would be cost. Can you afford a mortgage? What would be the monthly payment for the type of house you'd buy? There are extra costs to add to the monthly mortgage payment to consider when comparing a monthly rent price to a mortgage price. These things include property taxes, maintenance costs, utilities, and possible HOA (Homeowner's Association) fees.
Also, you should consider how long you'll be living in a house if you bought one. Closing costs for your mortgage, which are typically 3-5% of the loan amount, can increase the actual amount you'd be paying to live in your house if you only lived in it for a couple years. For example, say you can rent a house for $1,000/mo, or buy a similar one for $150,000. At a rate of 7% interest for a 30 year mortgage, the mortgage payment would also be $1000. Say the closing costs were 3%, or $4,500, and you live in the house for 3 years. The closing costs spread out for the 3 years comes out to $125/mo on top of the mortgage payment. Assuming the house stays the same value and you can sell it for $150,000, you would walk away having paid $125/mo more for owning the house vs renting it due to the closing costs. Plus there is the extra cost of property tax, the hassle of having to sell your home, and realtor fees. This can make renting seem a lot simpler when you're in it for the short term.
However, living in a house for a longer period of time makes the upfront closing costs worth it over time. Also, if you're planning on flipping the house and only want to live in it for a few years, you could potentially make back the closing costs plus a profit at the end if you could improve the value of the house enough.