generally, if you have the means to buy (the proper income and credit) then you should definately buy, not rent. consider this:
with renting, you throw your money away, never getting it back
with buying, the money you pay towards the house is still yours in the form of equity. this means, that if you sell your house before it's finished being paid off, you'll get all that money back, and then some (due to appreciation). in other words, if you buy a $100,000 home and have paid for $30,000 of it (in principal), when you sell the house for $110,000, you'll be getting $40,000 in cash out of the deal (to make a nice down payment on another house, which would lower your monthly payments). that is, that equity stays with you no matter what house you have (unless you spend it, obviously)
the hardest part of owning a home is actually having to fix things when they break from old age or whatever. of course, there is insurance for those type of things
the first thing you're going to want to do is go to your bank and tell them you wana pre-quilify for purchasing a house. this is sorta like a blank check. they figure all your incomes/expenses/etc and tell you how much of a house you can afford.if you just want to get a rough idea where you stand, they can estimate it all without having to run your credit, but of course once you're ready to take the plunge, they'll run your credit and allthat good stuff
can you tell i was looking into buying a house? i mean, my rent is already $760/mo now. if i had invested that into a house, i would have probably around $8000 in equity (i'm guesstimating on the interest)
hope that helps some
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