Rent is NOT throwing money away, it is HIGHLY dependent on where you're living. There are MANY sunk one-time costs you have to pay when buying a home, including:
--realtor commission (averages 6% of home price, or approximately 1.5 years of 30 year mortgage payments)
--title fees (frequently 1% of purchase price)
--other legal and bank fees
The NYT has a buy vs rent calculator that helps make decisions like these:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/buy-rent-cal...