Let's say a house costs $620,000. You made a down payment of $60,000 (around 10%). Your mortgage period is 25 years.
By the end of 25 years, you can expected to pay around $225,364 in interest (interest rate of around 2.90%).
I think better option will be to rent and invest. Once you save up enough, buy the house outright.
If you go for rent, you save money on the interest. That's a gain just like equity.
Theoretically, it sounds doable; however, practically it's a little different.
This is what a friend of mine did which I think was very smart.
He was on rent, and say his rent was $1500.00
He did all the math and saved enough money for the down payment, to make it 100% sure that his monthly mortgage amount would come out same as his current rent.
And what did it do?
The rent increases every year or so, but his monthly mortgage was a fixed 30 years which never changes.
The quality of life is where he took a small hit. His rented place was slightly bigger than the home he purchased. Which was OK and perfectly livable.
So if one wants to save enough money to put down 20% or so where his monthly mortgage is the same as his current rent then it could work out pretty good.
Look, the bottom line is, you gotta pay $1500 a month - either rent or in mortgage.
If you pay it in rent, it's all gone down the drain. If you pay it mortgage, you build equity and your down payment is yours at the end of the day.
Remember, when you pay rent, you are indirectly paying interest. You simply hand it over to your landlord and he gives it to the govt.
Land lord is not your "chachay ka puttar" who pays real estate taxes out of his pocket. He has already added it in your rent.