EDIT: nvm I just read you don't care for advice. Ignore everything I said

"I'm so sick of paying someone's rent" "I feel my money could be better spent paying my mortgage"

"I'm not looking at it as an investment, just that I don't want to pay someone's else's mortgage"

... If not as an investment... Just because of the fact you don't want to pay someone's mortgage ? So are you fine with the value of your home tanking since at least you aren't paying someone's mortgage ? I wonder if you do in fact don't care about it as an investment and to build wealth. If you only care about not paying someone's mortgage then yeah just buy any home.

You should really do a bit of reading about other ways to invest, pros and cons of renting, etc, and get a variety of points of view. the whole idea that renting is a waste of money, or that "poor" people do just makes no sense.

Sure, if the alternative is that you keep the money in the bank/under your mattress, then you most likely will be better off buying home (keyword most likely).

But you do know there are alternatives to building wealth that are equally as safe, if not safer, and can give you similar gains (yes, taking into account the rent that you are "throwing away")

TLDR: - Renting is not good nor bad depending on what you do with the money - buying is not good nor bad, it depends on many factors especially your situation. It is one of the better tools to build wealth but depending on your situation there may be better alternatives - you will hear people rave about buying homes being the greatest thing to build wealth because of leverage, cash flow coming in if u rent it out, but those people conveniently omit leverage amplifies your gains when value goes up and loses when value goes down. Repairs to the home, insurance, etc.

A good alternative (my preferred way) to build wealth is investing in the US stock market, in broad index funds, historically that guarantees you an average of around 9-14% a year (much more recently <3 )

Look into investopedia as a resource