[Happydayz]

Yes, but there is also the opportunity cost of your downpayment, the transaction costs of getting into and out of a house, and maintenance. Oh man, maintenance.

Ref - transaction costs. You have to figure it will cost you around ~8% of the value of a property to both get into and out of it. This does not include the cost of movers. With a rental your transaction costs might be $50 for the apartment application fee.

[gambiting]

I wish - I'm currently renting a house for 1200 pounds/month(so...1900 USD per month) and the agency took $1000 just to take the property off the market("admin fee" - non-returnable, doesn't go towards the deposit, it's just money down the drain really), then 1 month rent as deposit, and 1 month rent in advance. So really, I spent nearly $6k just to start renting a place.

I'm really considering a mortgage, but don't have money for the downpayment. Our mortgage payments would be actually less than what we pay for rent now.

[fluidcruft]

Rent pays maintenance costs, too it's just forcibly amortized and externalized. Higher-density housing like apartments and condos do have scale efficiencies reduce per-unit/occupant maintenance costs. But the difference between renting and buying is somewhat apples to oranges if you're comparing renting an apartment to buying a house.