mortgage payments are never much more then most rent on an equivalent place; often less. Say you buy a 3 bedroom, $300,000 pad, find $50,000 for a down payment, go with a 30 year fixed, you will be looking at about $1200 to $1500 a month. Then you can rent out the other two rooms for $400-$600 a month (depends on location) and you could be living for much the same or less cost of renting a place, while building equity.
I did the math, and was going to do the same thing this fall, but they took a different offer on the place I wanted.