Before even considering if you should be a home owner, you should have a 20% down payment to minimize the risk of foreclosure and to avoid paying the mortgage insurance. You also should have a full funded (whatever that means for you) emergency fund since home emergencies can come up regularly. Some even advise that you should build a separate home emergency fund valued at 1-3% of the purchase price.
Once you have both of those criteria, it is smart to see if you should purchase a piece of property for yourself. The NY Times "Is It Better to Buy or Rent?" Calculator is great for determining just that. Have you considered association fees, insurance, taxes, maintenance, and closing costs? The property costs more than just the price tag. Do you know how long you are going to stay in that property? The break even point can come 10 years after the purchase. If that is the case for your situation, are you prepared to wait that long before your investment pays off?
Having lived several years in CA, I always thought that buying is better than renting, however, now that I live in Miami (a renter's market), I can see that there is no way I could afford a house in the area that I am renting and break even, even after 30 years. Therefore, landlords seem unavoidable in my foreseeable future.
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