Buying or renting?

During the first year of our marriage, Robert and I are already facing a big, life changing altering decision; whether or not we should buy a house or rent an apartment. For a while now, we've been discussing buying a home. Honestly, it's the route we'd rather take as there's so much more freedom with a house. But at the same time, there's so much expense that comes with buying a home.
After the initial deposit, owning a house can cost the same as renting an apartment. Plus there's so much freedom to paint how you want, rennovate how you want, pretty much whatever you want that makes a house your home. However, then the additional expenses start emerging; refrigerator, dryer, furniture (we're starting out adhering to the traditional newlywed stereotype- with little to no furniture). Additionally, if something in our house breaks, it's our responsibility to fix it. So while it is something we're really interested in doing, is it sensible when we are just starting out and it requires such an investment?
As for an apartment, the initial deposit is far less. On the down side, an apartment isn't yours, so you can't completely customize it. However, as long as we don't choose an overly expensive place, it gives us the chance to invest. We can save for a bigger deposit than what we could now, but also, we could actually accumulate furniture. So when our lease is over in a year, we'd not only have a great deposit saved, but we wouldn't have to spend as much because we already have our furniture and appliances; all of our savings could go to a house.
Either way you look at it, there's benefits to both options. If we do rent, it just means we'll still have buying a home to look forward to. Besides, whether we choose an apartment or a house what's important is we'll be living there together; it'll be our little love nest.



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