agreed, variable. Lived most my life in Southern California. I've seen rent being both cheaper and more expensive than a mortgage. For a long while, the mortgag

agreed, variable. Lived most my life in Southern California. I've seen rent being both cheaper and more expensive than a mortgage. For a long while, the mortgage was a much better monthly payment; folks without a down payment were locked out of mortgages and stuck paying higher rents. Looking at my flyover state on craigslist + zillow, a random house I picked rents for $1.4k/mo and has an estimated mortgage of $1.5/mo. Your rent "savings" would be $100/mo and ignoring cost of maintenance if you mortgaged.