What about the opportunity cost of the $66,000 you put down? You could likely earn more than $200/mo pretty easily with $66,000 in cash to utilize. It is too simplistic to say you are saving $200/mo just because the monthly P&I payment is $200 less than a rent payment. That doesn't take into account what you could have done with the cash, property tax, maintenance, etc... Of course the big unknown is the future value of the property, which makes this very difficult to calculate accurately.

I've looked at this several times and renting typically comes out on top for me. I still decided to own though because I couldn't find what I wanted to rent and I care more about where I live than making sure it is the smartest purchase I can make.