<prompt> Human: The only reason that I added the almost 21 is that I dont know if my age makes a difference. Anyways, I just got a new full time job and am wanting to finally move out of my parents house. My old boss talked about this a lot, he said that you wanted to buy a house as quickly as possible to start building equity. Ive spoken to my dad and weve talked about it a little bit, basically each situation rent or buy will have its pros and cons. I just wanted to gather the opinions of the lovely finance strangers of the internet!My job will be in Salt Lake City. Ill be making 14.50 an hour, a substantial raise over my previous 10 an hour. Just as an FYI, I believe that I calculated all of these correctly, but I might be a little bit off Im paid by the hour, so I would be making 2,320 per month. If I calculated 10 for a 401k, that would take off 232, leaving me with 2,088. I then calculated that they would take out about 20 for taxes, which is 418, leaving me with a net monthly pay of 1,670. I can list all of my other monthly expenses as well if thats needed. My question is: Am I making enough money to justify taking out a loan on a house? If so, what do I want to know about different types of loans and what price range should I be looking at? And when it comes down to it, at this point in my life, would it be smart to take out a loan on a house or just rent an apartment? Any and all insight would be greatly appreciated.EDIT: Thanks for your input everyone. Im just going to rent for now until I can build up some savings and get used to being out on my own.  <response>: You say the job WILL be in SLC. Which means you have not started it yet and have no idea what your take home pay will be. You would need savings, payroll statements and more to buy a house. Find a small cheap place to rent, save as much as you can, continue to grow in your career and then make the buy choice. 