Lots of good discussion about financials and which option is cheaper. But I think one major point not being brought up here are all the subjective benefits of homeownership, which--for me at least--were much more important than a few thousand dollars this way or that way on the TCO. Some thoughts:

* Landlord can decide to sell the house any time

* Improvements and diy projects are a pain, have to negotiate with landlord (if possible at all)

* In the category of standalone house type properties, rental inventory is vastly inferior to inventory available for purchase

* Hard to do any lasting improvement or landscaping with the axe of eviction via rental sale hanging over one's head