<prompt> Human: I have been looking into purchasing a home recently and have asked a lot of people in my life for advice but now I figure its time to ask Reddit for some good old internet advice.Some background information: Im a 25 yo single male looking to buy a house. Ive been renting for my entire adult life and recently some of my close friends have become homeowners and I am beginning to feel as though it might be time for me to consider a home of my own. I have a steady job making about 46k year with decent benefits and have virtually zero debt. I owe about 1k on my car currently and all of my credit cards have a low balance which I pay off every other week or so. I just have a few questions about some common pitfalls regarding home ownership.Some stats somewhat frugal estimates:Current rent: 300month 900 split 3 ways with roommatesUtilities: 100-150monthCar Insurance 55monthFoodEntertainment: 300-400monthGas: 100monthIncome: 2200month after IRA contributions and taxes 550weekThat leaves me with about 1200month using the higher end of the expenses that I am able to save with my current renting situation, meaning that I could potentially save about that much each month while waiting to purchase a house.I have purposefully left out my car payment because I am putting it on hold while I look for houses I can make very minimal payments to satisfy the loan because I have been making 4x payments monthly for a while.Looking to purchase in the 150,000 range and expect to have payments of 1000month after mortgageinsurancetaxespmi with very little downpayment. 0-3It is also worth noting that I am not pressured by time. My landlord is willing to allow us to continue renting on a monthly basis as long as we give a 30 day notice, which seems quite helpful.1. Roommates - I am relying on having my current roommates move in with me to help finance this house purchase. I have already talked to them and they are willing and able to move in with me, but I know I should not rely on always having roommates to help with payments. I am hoping to have roommates for the foreseeable future and I understand that someone may move out, but I figure if I ever lose both roommates I can still make payments according to my current financial situation, so I am not solely relying on them.2. Downpayment - I do not currently have enough to purchase a house with the recommended 20 downpayment. I realize this can add on some unwanted PMI expense to my mortgage, but I have run some numbers and figure that I can hopefully put extra down each month towards principle payment to make up for the lack of 20 downpayment now. In fact, after going through amortization schedules I estimate that if I am able to pay an extra towards premium each month I will actually pay less interest in the long run. I know this might not always be sustainable, but I hope to put some money towards principle in excess to my monthly payment.I estimate that I would be able to charge 300room for my roommates and expect to pay at least that much extra towards my principle each month if circumstances allow. Assuming 2 years of 600mo principal payments in addition to my mortgage payment I can expect to put an additional 14.4k towards principal. Still shy of 20 but overall not bad.Alternatively, I could continue renting at 300month and save frugally 1200 month allowing me to save close to that amount by this time next year so that I could have a decent downpayment at that time. I know these are short term assumptions but I just dont know how long I can reasonably expect to have help from roommates 2 years might even be pushing it.3. Price Range - I kind of randomly chose 150k as a purchasing point because it sounded reasonable at the time, and I still think that it sounds pretty reasonable, but Im wondering if anyone thinks I should go lower or higher.4. Unexpected expenses - Nothing I have calculated accounts for unexpected expenses. I am honestly not sure how much I should use to calculate this type of thing. I have a relatively new car, so Im not worried about that too much, but having never owned a house I cant really estimate how much might need to be fixed. In the past 3 years renting at the same house I have not had to call the landlord for any major fixes other than the dishwasher breaking so my perspective for home repair might be a little skewed. Any advice here is appreciated.Im sure Im missing a million things. My main concern is that I dont have enough for the 20 downpayment and would really like to know if it is a better idea to continue renting and save or go ahead and purchase. My plan to leverage roommates is a good idea in my head, but relying on the is a gamble. However, I feel like it would be a gamble relying on them even if I continued renting because if I were somehow not able to find roommates and had to get a place of my own it would be close to 600month rent anyways and my estimate of 1000 mortgage after purchase is not that much more.  <response>: i vote no to buying. with 300 a month rent that is practically a steal. you are able to save so much money by renting. another big reason is that you are only 25 and single. if you are buying you should be committed to the house for at least 7 years. im 24 and single and cant imagine being tied down to a house for 7 years at this point in my life. there are so many future unknowns - like different jobs or an SO, that make committing to a place for 7 years not seem like such a good idea for me. 