The bolded part above is the primary reason you should continue to rent. A home you own, especially in the first 5 years, will ALWAYS have those extra expenses and time compared to a rental. You buy curtains, and repair the poorly done bathroom, you put in shelving and buy trash cans... maybe a new sofa. After 5 years you end up transitioning into things like a new roof or repairing the driveway (or foundation drains, or restore the yard after raccoons dig it up, or a new hot water tank, or...?.)
That stuff wasn't just normal expenses. I was talking about having to do renovations. The place I bought was a fixer. If I had spent more money on a place that was "done" I wouldn't have had to spend the $20,000 and all my time... the time was the big thing. With the amount of time I put into it I'd probably say I "spent" another $5,000-$10,000. I ended up having to replace the flooring on the main and upper level, replacing the basement carpet, all new paint, redid the bathrooms, doing the kitchen, redoing the trim, replacing the old ceiling fans, replacing all the windows (they were sooo old, lol), my fence fell over in a storm and had to be replaced, gutters, and had to landscape.
I'd only want to spend this amount of money $300,000+ for something that is totally done... as in, I wouldn't need a new roof for 20 years or a new water heater or anything like that... that it would all be fixed, repaired, or replaced already.
I might have had to spend another $25-$30,000 on a place that was all "done" but I think it would have been worth it for resell and for peace of mind. When I was looking my price was $250,000 max, but from what I remember if I'd spent closer to $280,000 I could have gotten quite a bit more or gotten something the same size just much nicer.
What is the cost to rent a place that you like right now compared to the cost to own if you put down 80%?
Now add in to the buy price, a 6%/yr opportunity (investment) loss that you don't get on your downpayment.
Add in that $6k+ per year for maintenance on a home.
Apartment is $1,650 a month excluding utility costs. With a 20% downpayment, local property taxes, it comes out to about $1,500-$1,550.
I seriously doubt maintenance would cost anywhere near $6,000 a year. I'd have an inspector make sure everything is done well for the price. Yard is tiny and can be down with a push mower... I can't see any more typical maintenance costs than yard work and a power washing every 2 years for the foreseeable future as the listing claims everything is new and replaced (windows, roof, HVAC, etc.).
On Equity -- over time, homes will keep pace with overall inflation, and not gain much once the maintenance and updates are subtracted. Homes have spiked in value in the past decade, partly due to low interest rates. There is not a lot of room for interest rates to continue to fall, so growth will stay low.
When rent becomes 20% more than your mortgage payment for a similar place... or you can't find ANYTHING that is reasonable for you to rent to live in. that is the time to look at buying.
The apartment building I am in already raised their rates. My place will cost about $150 more when my lease is renewed next year.
$320,000 might be a bit too much.... I would be much more comfortable with a price $30,000 to $40,000 less. Or buying a fixer for $130-150,000 and putting $100,000 into it.