Well that’s a super nuanced answer though.
IF OP can afford a house AND can keep enough emergency savings to deal with an issue, it may still be better to buy. Rental money is just gone forever in exchange for not assuming any risk on the property, but it retains no value.
If OP can’t afford to buy at all, this post is stupid, so the question is really if there’s no money left for emergencies. In which case, the obvious answer is keep renting because a single point of failure pushing you out of your house is a bad proposition.
If there’s SOME money… It just depends on the house. Some of the failure points are covered by inspection, but it could be risky. Better to not max out your ability to borrow if at all possible.
Depends how much money you have an the mortgage length you pick. Every payment covers some principle and some interest. There is no situation where you get a house and then just pay interest. This is a lack of understanding of how payments work.