<prompt> Human: My friend is about 22 years old and just now going into his sophomore year. Instead of renting an apartment Around 500, he wants to buy a small apartment for about 80,000. He has at least 15 of the total amount for down payment, and he says his payments would be around 300? Finally, after he needs to move out he plans to either rent the apartment to someone else, or just sell it. I am not very familiar with house buyingselling by any means, so I thought I would reach this community for help.  <response>: Does your friend have enough income to cover not only the mortgage but property taxes, insurance, repairs, etc.? If so this is not necessarily a bad idea. Its likely going to be hard to get a mortgage without 20 down and will certainly be impossible without qualifying with enough income. That has to be difficult assuming hes a full time student.If all of that works out and if the mortgage taxes insurance equals 500mo then the total payments for either scenario for three years is 500 x 12 x 3 18,000. As long as he could sell the place for more that 62,000 then buying is the better deal. This does ignore real estate commision.Buying is riskier for other reasons, however. What if he wants to transfer to another school? What if a huge repair bill comes up? With an apartment you just end up paying to break the lease if you want to live elsewhere. 