<prompt> Human: Wife and I made 115k gross, around 6700 take home per month after taxes and everything else.Out of that income, we have approximately 947 in non-housing expenses per month making our debtincome ratio 14 detailed as such:1. 5,000 balance 1.9 on her car 320mo minimum1. 8,700 balance 1.9 on my car 260mo minimum1. 9,400 balance on federal student loans 5.5 53mo minimum1. 42,600 balance on private student loans 3 314mo minimumOur current lease expires at the end of this year, so were looking to get a house around then. At that time, well have approximately 37,400 saved to go towards a down payment. In our current market, a house that would meet our wants and needs would most likely sell for anywhere from 250k-400k, depending on location in the citycounty were in. So, any way you slice it, we wont meet the 20 mark for not needing PMI with a 37.4k down payment.My question is that I know a lot of how much you qualify for a mortgage deals with your income to debt ratio, so my question is such: is it better to take that 37,400 and pay off loans 1-3 and go in with a 14,300 down payment OR is it better to go in with those lines of credit still having a balance and having the bigger 37,400 down payment??  <response>: You keep bringing up the point that you want to jump immediately into buying a house to start building equity, because renting is throwing money away. Conversely, many people are telling you that this isnt true. In my opinion, both viewpoints have valid arguments, so to better understand how much equity you are growing, take a look at an amortization schedule for a 30 year loan to see what portion of the principle is paid off each month. Throw in some numbers for your price range to see how much of your monthly payment is actually adding to your equity.Depending on what your mortgage would be a month vs. what your current rent which you said was a great deal is, you may be able to increase your equity MORE by renting for now. Obviously there are other factors at play, but the one point you keep bringing up is equity and throwing money away.For example, if you were going to take out a 300k 30 year mortgage 4.5 all numbers from my head, youre going to have a 1,520.06 a month payment not including property tax, etc., of which only 395.06 applies to the principle. So youre paying 1,125.00 a month to rent the money for the house. If you were currently paying 1200 a month in rent, then you are only throwing away 75 less a month ignoring PMI, property tax, etc, for the added risk of home ownership. To me, not worth it. Obviously your numbers will be different, but I encourage you to run them and look at this viewpoint. It should paint a clearer picture by splitting up the interestprinciple payments of a mortgage this way. Let us know how they come out!Best of luck. 