I would make sure that you are going to stay in the place for a while. If you buy, I really think the break even point is about 10 years, maybe less if the housing prices keep rising. You will put a decent amount of money down that you are no longer investing (except in your house) and keep in mind the closing costs of buying a place. Then when you sell you'll supposed to expect to pay around 10% of the house price in closing costs and fixing up to get ready to sell. If you can rent and save excess money for a while then that's an option, if your mortgage decreases with buying a place then that's obviously helpful, but when the AC goes out and you have to spend $10k out of pocket that's also not something that you would have to pay for when renting. I bought in 2006 before the bubble in the US and just recently sold the place at a big loss, so hindsight I look back and think about all the costs we had to pay for our condo, the special assessments, AC repair, other stuff, and think about the payback period at normal inflation. I would expect to pay a certain amount in closing, a certain amount when selling, and in a 7-10 year period probably the same amount in something for a routine fix up, like the AC going out, a new roof or something else that goes wrong with a purchased place. It's certainly a decision I wouldn't rush until you are confident that you will stick around in the place for at least 10 years, or be able to rent out easily if you want to keep it on the books and be turning a rental profit.