Our rent is $1,240 a month and the house we're renting would probably sell around $200-225k. At 4% on a 30-year mortgage that's a mortgage payment of $955 per month, leaving $285 a month ($3,422 a year) for our landlord to cover property taxes, maintenance, and the water/sewer/garbage bill. Property taxes are about $2,000, W/S/G average maybe $75/month and in the two years we've lived here the washer, dryer, dishwasher, an evaporative cooler, and (just this week) a furnace have been replaced. In addition they had to re-plumb part of the house and fix multiple leaks in the main waterline from the meter to the house as it was made of polybutylene. That whole ordeal alone probably cost at least a few thousand dollars as it was probably 10+ man-days of labor between the multiple leaks and then biting the bullet and redoing the piping into the house and partially inside the house.
It's no wonder our landlords have told us they'll be selling the house as soon as we move out, or in a year or two, whichever comes first.
It's been nice for us as we're getting a very responsive local landlord who is charging us below-market rent because we're good tenants who aren't going to be late on rent or trash the house. Had we bought this same house two years ago, any minimal equity built-up would have been more than erased by the maintenance costs.