<prompt> Human: Im a first time home buyer. I have a 75k a year salary and have about 80k to put as a down payment.My question is, should I put that money into the largest house I can afford 400k? Or buy a condominium? My logic for this: rates are at an all time low. Housing prices will eventually rise. Say my house increases in value by a staggering 10 in a year. 10 on 400k is significantly higher than 10k on 150k.Alternatively, I can buy a 150k condominium and pay it off quickly in 2-3. At the point, I can rent it out, sell it and use that money for a later down payment.What do you guys think?  <response>: Buying the most expensive house you can afford is rarely a good idea. Ideally you would never put all of your money into one thing like a house. In addition to this, in America at least, 10 growth on real estate is simply not going to happen any time soon in most markets. The idea that property values almost always grow at 5 a year has turned out to be false, as we learned from the recent mortgage crisis and the aftermath we are still feeling.I dont know in what form that 80k is sitting around cash, CDs, stocks, mutual funds, but it would be better from an investment standpoint to invest only a portion of your money into real estate and put the rest in the options I mentioned above. In other words, out of your two ideas, the condo seems like a better route.Also, real estate markets vary widely in U.S. and elsewhere. Make sure real estate is a good investment in the market you would like to live in, and perhaps try and pull up some appraisal data of similar properties. 