<prompt> Human: Hello all! Throwaway for privacy reasons.My girlfriend and I are looking to get married within the next year. I have just a bit over half my annual salary in savings 32k, am investing aggressively into my RothK, drive a 2008 Honda CR-V paid off, and no other debt. My GF has 13k in student loans, 13k on her car note, and makes between 40-55k a year, depending on the amount of weddings she books. Combined, our income is over 100k. I believe she has somewhere along 25k in savings. We live in the MA area and I would like to purchase a home or, rather, begin accruing some equity in one. I dont want it to be our forever home, for obvious reasons. My credit score is fair due to its age and otherwise spotless. The MA housing market is pretty, well, lame. A lot of money gets you rubbish, speaking frankly. Pony up a bit more and you get what Id call average. I would eventually like a quaint, small home with nice shutters and cedar siding. These are a bit out of my price range, at the moment. I like to think I have done okay for my age and would prefer to continue into early adulthood with prudence. In an effort to do so, I have considered buying an apartment 180k as our first place with an aggressive note and living there for a few years until we have saved more. I enjoy the idea of supplemental income once the apartment is paid off. While I dont want to turn into a career landlord, I dont mind owning a nicer studio apartment and renting to more financially competent adults, and the responsibilities associated. I have electrical trade skills so thats a plus when it comes to repairs and updates. I also like to think Im a handy man. Does anyone have any general advice for me?  <response>: Dont buy into the old adage that renting throwing away money. Im also a MA resident so I understand the ridiculousness of it all. Lets look at a few numbers that paint a good picture:Say you want to drop 400k on a house. Thats high for your combined income, but low on the scale of MA homes not falling down. Your best bet is to scrounge up the 20 down payment to avoid PMI. So youll need to find 80k. Sounds like that will about wipe you out savings wise. Lets assume you get a 30 year note at 4. Monthly payments on a 320k mortgage 400-80k is 1500 a month. Multiply that by the number of payments and after 30 years you paid 620k 54080K for that house. Then you have to consider maintenance. Good rule of thumb is 1 of the homes value per year. Thats 4k per year, times 30 years or another 120k. All in number is now 740k. The idea is that you can then sell that house for a profit after this time period. That profit will be sales price minus investment, so whatever you net on the sale subtracted by 740k. Recent events show this to be profitable. My parents bought their MA home for 50k back in the 1970s, now its worth 750k. But as they say, past performance does not predict future results. There is no evidence that housing prices will continue to climb. In fact, the evidence is probably pointing in the opposite direction as millenials are struggling to afford homes. Meanwhile, if you took that 80k initial investment and parked it in the market at an average return of 7 per year, contributing 4k per year that would go to house maintenance, after 30 years you would have just a hair over 1 million.So in the long run, the case can be made that investing in the market is a greater financial move than owning a home.Of course there is always positives to owning a place. Its better to raise a family. Its a constant. You can make changes to the place without approval from a landlord. 