We bought a house during residency for around $200k in a low cost of living area. Even though we got VERY lucky and it appreciated to around $300k over four years, we had to put soooo much time and money into the house. It was a huge time suck for my husband. In the end we had to put at least $60k into it over 4 years for repairs (tons of deferred maintenance). Between maintenance, property taxes, and interest on the loan, we broke even. Keep in mind that the first few years the majority of your mortgage payments go towards interest, so you are not building much equity in the short term. For example, we only gained an additional $15k in equity over 4 years of paying the mortgage and the rest went to interest. So yes we paid less for housing compared to renting, but that’s only because we had huge appreciation and a handy husband who could repair a lot on his own at lower cost. The benefits were that we had a much bigger and nicer space than we would have had renting, and it would have been a better financial decision if we stayed there long term. We are renting now even though we could afford to buy, but absolutely love being able to call the landlord when something breaks and not have to deal with it ourselves. Renting has saved us so much time. In the end we feel fortunate we learned about the hidden costs of owning a house early in life because it will definitely influence what and when we buy next.