<prompt> Human: I am 24, live in NJ, my mother, sister17 and I rent. I bring most of the money, mom is an illegal immigrant so she cant co-sign on the house or anything but we basically split everything down the middle. I grossed 63K last year, projected around 80k this year. I want to buy a house for 260,000 by mid april. Will have around 15,000 saved by then.I obviously wont have 20 down. People keep telling me to do first time buyer and put 3.5 down. I have a 781 credit score, and we really need a house, because renting sucks and we live in a cereal box.Bills are about 1400, rent is 1200. I am 3k in debt to my leased car, that will be over in august.I see that some of you are against the 3.5 down. Can anyone shed a light on this matter for me? Will banks give me a loan for such amount at my age and my income?Thank you.  <response>: you should find a better place to live, but this is not synonymous with buying.Purchasing a house is going to cost a lot more than just the mortgage. A more realistic idea of expenses is twice your monthly mortgage. It hits you in fits and starts machines, repairs, meeting neighborhood and building standards, filling and climatizing much more square footage because no one buys as much space as they were renting.At your current income, yes you could afford it, but it would remove a lot of flexibility from your situation. Renting doesnt generally suck, though it has a different set of problems than home ownership. If YOUR renting situation sucks, you should focus on changing that. But look more carefully on if buying is really a better solution.Depending on what you want, it may be, but for most people, especially city dwellers, it is not. 