Renting keeps you flexible and avoids maintenance, insurance and property tax, but every payment builds the landlord's equity rather than yours, and Saskatoon rents have climbed alongside home prices rather than staying flat.
Programs narrow the gap for first-time buyers. The Home Buyers' Plan allows up to $60,000 from an RRSP and the FHSA allows up to $8,000 a year to a $40,000 lifetime limit, both of which can be combined toward a down payment without new debt.
The right answer depends on how long you plan to stay and what your actual carrying cost would be against a real mortgage rate and a real home price, not a generic average. Joel Dyck can run that comparison against a hand-reviewed valuation of the specific type of home you are considering.