<prompt> Human: My wife and I have 200k in savings to go towards a home. A house wed consider is a 500k 2br or a 700-750k 3br. Currently DINK, late 20s, with no immediate plans for children.We plan to stay in the area for at least the mid-term range 6-12 years.Rent is currently 1400 and goes up about 50year. 0 debt obligations is a great feeling and we prefer this high to owning money. Student loans paid off 1 year ago! Our combined current salaries of 140k are fairly secure and have been for the last 4 years.We can and have been saving roughly 70kyear after rent, taxes, retirement savings and expenses food, travel, donations, etc.RENTDo we continue to rent and enjoy the flexibilitycarefree responsibilities of repair and see where life takes us for the cost of 17kyear? 1 br apartmentMORTGAGE300-400k add the rent towards paying a mortgageBUYby saving up for the next 4 to 6 years and be able to buy a house outright by waiting to commit to such an investmentThis timeframe is when both market and personal circumstances might come into effect. Moving out of the city or caring for aging parents is a factor. Risk of housing; it seems silly for 3 br to cost this much, potential to decrease in value but unlikely but thats what they all thought 3 years agoFairly steady housing market if not increasing certainly faster than the value of cash in our neighborhood, gentrifying to some degree.Long time rpersonalfinance reader, first time posting a topic sorry its a throwaway Thanks for your comments and recommendtions in advance Reddit!  <response>: In this scenario I would consider the mortgage. If you go with a 15 year which i would recommend as you can get far lower rates than a 30 year And as you stated you have paid off your student loans and have no other debt. i hope you have a couple credit cards open that you pay off every month because then i would assume you have a credit score 780 which would get you into the best bracket for mortgages, for a 15 year you can probably get 3.25 or less. And because you have such a large down payment 40 for the 500k house you would also get some points back or get an even lower rate if you want to keep your points atnear 0You say housing is increasing in value in your area faster than your cash is so getting the house now would be a wise financial decision if you believe that trend to continue. Some rough math shows a payment for a 15 year mortgage to be able 2144 before taxesinsuranceYou can use this document i made if you want to look at other ratesif you know how to use the solver feature in excel just get cell E185 0 by changing B6I dont have a 30 year mortgage on excel you can just expand the table down another 180 cells a 30 year would be cheaper but obviously you would pay more in interest as the rate would be higheryou pay longer. I used to be a mortgage processor so i know a thing a two or mortgages if you have questions please feel free to ask, or go here 