<prompt> Human: Edit 2: Thanks again for the great feedback. I think whats best for me is to wait out the job for a year to make sure it is one Ill stay in. I intend to also find a much cheaper apartment farther away to also figure out how I feel about a 30min commute which is the minimum to find any affordable housing where I am. I intend on taking most of the money that Ive been paying to loans as well as the income from the pay raise and putting that into a portfolio so I have more money going into this. Look forward to seeing another thread from me in 1 12 years.---Ah yes, the old Buy vs Rent question.Im currently renting, a big appeal to renting was that I was super close to my old job. It runs me 1,700 a month. I could walk to work, it was great. That convenience has since worn off and I do not think I would pay for it again. Also, Im switching jobs so if I chose to rent, I would probably find a much cheaper option when my lease ends in Jan.I hate paying rent. Its such a large portion of my post-tax paycheck that gives me no return other than surviving. I really like the concept of owning property. This new job I have is what I would call a dream job, and Im incredibly lucky to have landed it, and I expect to stay at it for at least 5 years. And even if I do leave, there are plenty of other job opportunities in the area.My idea is to scrounge up enough money while I can at my new job before my lease ends and put a down payment on the cheapest house I can in a relatively safe neighborhood that is within 30 minutes of my current job. I grew up in a rundown mobile home, I have no issue with living modestly.Does this sound like a good idea? Im 25, so pretty young, and Im getting a pretty big bump in payscale in my new job to 110k pre-tax. I havent done any digging into the current market as its most likely going to change by the time Ill be making a move on this. But I want to make this decision now so I can start saving if I choose to buy. Another motivation is that I want to get a dog and its hard to find apartments that are okay with that or dont charge you out of the bum for it.Also, what do you normally do with a starter home once youve finished paying and you move out some point later? Resell, or do you just hand it off to a property manager and try to make residual income from it?Cheers! Let me know if theres anything else I can provide.Edit: This got a lot more attention after I went to bed. Thats awesome, thanks for all the great info! Below is my current financial information and if there is anything else that would help, feel free to ask:Recently paid off all my student debt pretty proud of that one so Im used to living modestly, and think it would be great to throw that 1.5k a month I was paying at the end towards housing. This is in addition to the extra 1.7k per month Ill be getting with the new job. I also have excellent credit, Ive never missed a CC payment and Ive help multiple lines of credit for around 7 years.For current assets, I keep 5k around for my emergency fund and I dont intend on touching it. After my next rent payment Ill have 4k in liquid cash. I own no estate, and Ive been making full contributions to a pre-tax 401k which is currently around 75k. I dont want to loan against it, Ive decided a few years back that Ill keep it handsoff, and I dont want to be hit with the opportunity cost of the time where that money isnt in my 401k and of course the double tax schedule.I guess that leaves me post-tax with a little over 3k a month to save for a down payment closing costs, and once Im out of the apartment it would be closer to 5k a month to cover mortgage and all other homeowning expenses. I hope to cover as close to 20 for my down payment, but it looks like with the way I have ran the numbers, Ill only have 22k by the time the money is needed. I also have some relatives that own housing locally could probably gift certificate me the money and of course I would pay them back, just not as a loan, but that would be a contingency.Assistant: I think my favorite thing to use when comparing places is commute distance and assume the cost is equivalent to the federal milage deduction amount.Assuming 30 minutes is 20 miles and the federal estimate is 50 centsmile, it costs around 10 to drive to work, and another 10 to drive home. 5 days a week is 100. A month is 400 being thrown away on car expenses instead of being thrown away on rent.If you can find a place that is 20 miles away and is 400 less per month all inclusive than a walking location, it seems like a decent deal. And to be fair, 50 cents per mile is a bit on the extreme side if you have any sort of financial sense. You can drive a car for significantly cheaper. On the other hand, turning an 8 hour day into a 9 hour day just isnt appealing to me. Work effectively demands 9 hours of my time but I am only getting paid for 8 of them if I have a 30 minute commute. Your real hourly rate is effectively about 10 less and you are losing around 12 more of your time to keep the advertised pay.But I really hate commuting.Human: Thanks for the resources, and thats a great way to value commute. I might steal that.Using the calculator it seems that I should favor buying by a large margin. I even ran it backwards with my current rent to find that the equivalent house price would be 450k which is actually a lot higher than I was anticipating to buy for. So thats a relief.  <response>: If your current rent is 1700mo, thats not a 450k house unless you actually have 90k to put down. And thats ignoring property tax, HOA if applicable, insurance, and maintenance costs. And thats also completely ignoring the value of your time in commuting and general house upkeep. 