<prompt> Human: First of all, thanks to everyone who shares their wisdom here. Ive learned a lot in my time lurking.That being said... Im looking for some opinions here. Heres the breakdown: Early twenties, base salary of 100k 5600month after tax and 401k contributions. Engaged to a fiance with 42k salary. Our finances are staying separate until we get married in early 2015. Monthly spending all inclusive, but not including fiances spending is roughly 3500. Wont go into details of the budget, as that is the subject of a different discussion. Currently renting at 1769mo, fiance contributes 800mo. Lease expires in July. The property manager who is actually pretty cool tells me that rent will increase but I will be able to negotiate it down to a 3 increase. So that puts future rent payments at 1822mo. By the time our lease is up, I will have a little more than 33k saved for a down payment. This is money set aside specifically for a down payment. I have a separate 18k emergency fund and am putting money aside for other purposes IRA included. We plan to stay in the area for quite some time. I have no debt.Real estate around here is pretty expensive. From preliminary research, were looking at townhomes for about 300k. I dont think were willing to go much higher than that.I am aware that my down payment will not be 20 and I will be stuck with PMI. However, running a mortgage calculator, it still looks like the monthly payments are comparable to rent 1884mo mortgate vs. 1822mo rent. And that includes PMI and tax, assumes a 5 30 year loan, and assumes a 300,000 house with 30k down payment. I consider this a maximum cost scenario and will push for a less expensive house to lower the payments.I also have several large paydays in the forseable future that I can apply to a mortgage to get to a place where Im no longer paying PMI. This includes a 14k wedding gift from fiances parents and 3 remaining vests out of 4 of a 50k stock award from work vesting once per year.This is all ignoring the net positive effect my fiance will have on the numbers once we join our finances. For the purposes of this discussion, lets say Im doing this alone but will have a 800-900 contribution from a reliable roommate to apply to the mortgage payments.Ok... I think thats it. So, what do you guys think? Does it make sense to buy a house?If I left anything out, please ask.Thanks!  <response>: Finances aside, the one big argument against purchase I can think of is that at your age, you might not want to be tied down to your city for a considerable amount of time. You are young and child-free, and along with your fiance can very comfortably afford the rent. Why not let this last another few years? The plan to stay in the area for quite some time can change really quick if the right opportunity presents itself, especially for someone in their early 20s. 