<prompt> Human: I have the basics of credit down. How to build, how to maintain, how to fix, etc... I keep abreast of the churning community and have dabbled in it a couple years ago. Ive slowed down and have had some life changes I didnt expect. Trying to boil down all the numbers, nitty gritty, and details is hard, but let me give it a try...This past year I made just around 85k before tax. Just eye balling a few of my paychecks, it looks like I bring home somewhere between 1,600-1,900two week period. I know those two dont add up, but I pulled tons of overtime that I dont want to assume Ill be repeating, so lets use the biweekly numbers instead of that year to date number. Expenses are roughly: 1,000 rent 650 student loans 170 personal loan 200 for a credit card that WILL be paid off by the end of the year and is in a promotional no interest period270 car payment 100 car insurance 20 renters insurance 30 electric 50 internet 50-150 gas 200 grocerieseating out Whats that total to? Looks like about... 2,740mo. Right? Mental math may be off...Im trying to put 300mo into savings. Lets just round it out to 3,000 in monthly expenses. Im bringing in somewhere in the ballpark of 3,200-3,800 a month, which leaves 200-800 as extra savings, spendings, or to pay down debt. My question here is this: would it make sense to try to find a house with a mortgage under my current rent with comparable size and just start building equity? I can dump any extra money into the mortgage or into remodeling myself I have basic construction experience. Or does this just sound like a horrible idea???  <response>: From my experience and there are likely people who will disagree but you should not look at buying a house as an investment. You can get much better rates when investing your money elsewhere and in recent years real estate has become less predictablestable. You should only buy a house if it fulfills your lifestyle, goals, and preferences. Me, personally, only enjoy living in a house. I grew up in a house and have lived most of my adult life in a house. I did spend about a year in an apartment and hated it. I felt like I didnt really have my own space or privacy. Being able to hear my neighbors toilet flush every morning as I was brushing my teeth was just not my thing. But, some people have no problem with it and even prefer it. Generallyhistorically, per square foot, renting is going to be cheaper overall than buying a house. While currently rent is at really high levels, you should still check out comparable floor plans and do the math. Something to consider: If you do a full comparison between buying a house mortgage insurance taxes appliance repairs maintenance and renting rent insurance, find the difference rent will pretty much always be cheaper, and then take the savings from renting and calculate a 5 or whatever when investing the savings, that will tell you which makes more sense financially. Which leaves you only one question: is buying a house something that you want personally? You can run the same cost comparisons between a 4k flatscreen tv bought new to an old CRT found free on CraigsList, but a decision like this is really going to come down to personal preference. 