Homeowner

As of last Friday, I am now a homeowner for the first time. I made an offer last Monday on a three bedroom, three level townhouse in Charlotte, NC, near the university where I will begin working on a Ph.D. in geography this fall. After I made the offer, I got into a bidding war with a couple of other people. The sellars finally accepted my offer on Friday morning. I'm really excited about this! My first home that I own! Anyway, this just made much more sense economically to me than simply renting an apartment. One bedroom apartments in and around the university area go for around an average of $700 per month (I was astonished to find that out). My monthly mortgage on this townhouse, however, will be much less. And it is three bedrooms, so I could possibly rent out the two bedrooms and bathroom I'm not using and supplement my monthly payments. I could perhaps even make a little profit each month! How's that for capitalism? At least I will be building up equity in owning a home rather than throwing money away on rent each month.