Should we buy a house at 20

[Trey Bailey]

Me and my girlfriend are trying to decide whether to rent or buy a house in the spring of next year, she will be 18 and I'll be 20. Our combined income is about 40,000. We will have a car payment of 250$ a month and no debts other than that. We would like to buy in the suburbs of North Carolina in the outskirts of wake county if we buy. Average rent in our area starts at 800-900$ for a studio apartment. Would it be smarter to rent or buy? We are fine with settling if we buy but we don't want to take on something we couldn't handle. I was thinking we should set our budget to  140-160,000$ if we buy. I'm new here and just looking for advice. Thanks everyone!