Rent to Own

Naturally, since I'm looking for a new place, I decided to look at actually buying something instead of renting. In this burg you're looking at about $250k for a place with about 500 square feet. So did some math.

Base mortgage amount: $250,000 (and that's low end)
10 year mortgage at 8% (going rate): $96,848 interest
Condo fees: $200 x 120 (10 years worth): $24,000
$1508.02 a month in payments, paid bi-weekly.

So that makes it $120,848 in money paid above and beyond the actual cost of the place.

Renting the same place (given a steady rent, I know not all that realistic)
$1000 x 12 x 10 (ten years) = $120,000.

Steady rent is not realistic again, but consider your own place needs to be maintained, and frankly condo fees go up as well, so for the purposes of this exercise I'll assume they cancel out.

So I can rent and save up money to buy a place for cash (or come close) or buy and pay 75% more per month as opposed to renting. And wind up in the exact same place (capital vs savings).

Looks like I'll be renting with the caveat that I put away $500 per month towards a down payment on a place that is significantly larger than a closet.