[Erin]

You don't want to do a 0% down. House prices are too volatile right now. We bought our townhouse 4 years ago. People are listing these for what they paid for them! FOUR years ago! That means if you have an agent list it they pretty much take your down payment leaving you with nothing... If people had put NOTHING down they would be owing the bank...

We want to move out of the area and get a less expensive house but we don't know if we can even afford to have an agent to list this one! They say you should only spend 25% of your take home pay on your mortgage. We realized we can't possibly get a single family house and stay under that. The only options are to put more down or buy a cheaper house (which doesn't exist here!) We will probably end up moving and renting while we save up more $$ before buying a new house. It doesn't sound fun after owning a house for 4 years, but in just 6 months to a year you can save so much!

If I were you I would focus on paying off those student loans and saving for a down payment. Then you can figure out which town or suburb you want to live in!

Also, since you aren't sure you will like the area you do NOT want to have to sell a house after a year or two. I would just rent something really nice and don't give into that crap about buying being better than renting. It's not always true and it depends on your situation and location. We outgrew our house in just these few years and now we are practically stuck with it as the market stinks here.