Originally Posted by
DSRilk
That is flat out untrue in many places. Maybe where YOU live. It's also irrelevant, since we're talking about a flat cost. If you think you can afford $1500 a month in rent or a mortgage, it affects the size of your place, not how much you're paying. Out where I am, I have plenty of friends who bought a local townhouse for $250k when they went up, and they're renting them for the roughly the cost of their monthly mortgage rate (usually a touch more). But to buy (non-first time in the US), you need 20% down, a good employment record, and solid credit. And that isn't nearly as easy to come by these days.