<prompt> Human: Hey guys hopefully this is the right subreddit for this. Im a recent college grad that managed to land a pretty good job right out of school 60k.Some friends and I were thinking of renting a house in the downtown area, but my parents suggested I save up and buy a townhouse, pay it off, and eventually sell it. Which makes the most sense right now?The rent for the house would be about 700 per month, and I only plan on staying there a year or so, since our Company will be moving downtown.EDIT: I live in Raleigh, NC if that helps. I have about 45k in student loans right now, that I plan on hitting pretty heavily over the next 2-3 years.Assistant: Rrrrent. Buyings for when your settled down and know your living situation wont be changing for 7 years. Human: But what about people saying renting is just pissing away money, since you dont get any equity in return for it?  <response>: Take a look at the Rent vs. Buy calculator on the sidebar. Its true that you dont get any equity for renting, but a lot of the expenses involved in owning a house are pissing away money as well. For example, you have closing costs for buying and selling, interest, mortgage insurance, HOA dues, homeowners insurance, property taxes, and maintenance.If you buy a property and sell it after three years, all of the costs above can easily equal what you would have been paying in rent. And thats completely excluding principal.If you really want to get some real estate equity, then take the money you would have been spending on all those other costs, and invest in a REIT index fund. If you save enough there, that can go a long way towards a down payment for your forever home. 