<prompt> Human: Im 23, living with my girlfriend, we rent a really nice 11 apartment in the nice part of town for 940 a month. I make just shy of 28k a year, because I work for the state of Florida in a non-psych social work position. Im currently looking for new employment, the most promising job is offering just over 30k, the one I want the most is offering 35k, but for simplicitys sake lets say I make somewhere between my current 28k and my probable 30k. My girlfriend makes 37k, but when it comes to buying a house her income would be irrelevant because a loan would just be in my name. I live in Tallahassee, FL. As far as I can tell, Tally is NOT growing. Ive only lived here for a few months but I looked around for properties for a while beforehand and the impression I got is that most of the houses and condos that are available for sale are old, falling apart, and poorly maintained, since anything that could be rented is very likely rented to college students and there isnt a lot of maintenance done as a result. I toured a property for my dad where it was clear that the landlord hadnt been there for quite a while - he didnt know there was severe water damage under the sink and bowing throughout the floors. My dad has made good money back home in Miami renting out cheap apartments to people. As a result he thinks its easy to find a good property and do basic fixes. He wants to help me buy a house. I have no idea what that entails, my mom says hes just desperate to get some of his money invested in property again and sees this as an opportunity to do that.He wants me to look in the 60-80k range for costs. To me, that spells bad, ugly properties with a lot of repair costs. I also dont know how long Im going to be in Tallahassee. This is not where I want to settle. I have to stay for at least three years or so, to take advantage of my tuition waiver and get a free Masters degree from FSU. But I dont intend on staying more than maybe 5 years max. My dad says, due to the cheap price, the closing costs and sale costs would be so minuscule as to not be an issue. He would most likely pay the whole down payment for me, and not really hang it over my head much. I personally dont see how this will result in any benefit except that his money will temporarily be tied up in a house, but to me it seems like theres no chance of him or me making any money on this. He thinks Im throwing money away by renting. I just dont know enough about buying a house to figure out whether hes secretly right and theres some opportunity for me to have lived the next 5 years as if it was rent free after we sell the house. Whereas he paid off his 15 year mortgage in 10 years and made renovations to our childhood home to the point of the property value being maybe almost tripled. He invests a lot and has a lot of financial success, which is why I am confused, this subreddit insists that rent is not throwing away money. But he does.  <response>: He thinks Im throwing money away by renting. This is flawed logic that used to be valid 20 years ago. Now rent vs buy is financially nearly equal with many lifestyle factors that favor renting. just one link among many Google hits that generally agree 