<prompt> Human: Good Morning rPersonalFinanace,About 3 weeks ago my fiancee called off our marriage. We bought the house only this past December. She gave birth to our son this past April. Things have been a whirlwind of anger, sadness, and emotions, but Im trying my best to stay above water. Right now Im trying to separate my emotions and focus on the house as an opportunity.Anyway, we bought this house with the intention of starting our life together. Its a bungalow in a family-oriented Chicago neighborhood. We bought it for 330,000 and the current balance is 311,000.Ive put a lot of work into preparing this home to bring our son home to and Im trying to wrap my head around if it is in my best interest to hold onto the home. I did some rough math and if we sell it now even for 335,000 we will likely only break even with the remaining principal and we will each walk away with nothing. My ex is willing to let me refinance the mortgage in my name as long as she gets half of what we would receive from selling it... which is nothing currently. That is a loss of 10,000 for each of us... which basically would have been the same as paying rent for the past year.The monthly mortgage payment is 2100. My annual income is currently 56,000. My only other debt is 600 a month from student loans which I am considering changing to income-based repayment. I am a public school teacher and can take advantage of the 10-year-loan forgiveness program if it best suits me. I can also take advantage of the 5-year teacher loan forgiveness if that better suits me also.I am looking to switch to a higher paying school district next year. The other school districts in the area will give me a salary boost of 10,000. Im also considering starting a tutoring business so I have additional income on the books.The basement is finished as an in-law suite so another option is to start another LLC for real estate property, rent the bedrooms in the basement, and put that income into the LLC as more income on my books.So with all that said - here is a list of my reasons for wanting to keep the house. I admit some of the reasons I want to hold onto the house are purely driven by emotions.- It is the house that I brought my son home to and I would like him to grow up in it even if he is only spending half his time with me.- My ex is willing to walk away from the house as long as she receives her share of what we would receive when we sell it which is currently nothing.- I was not able to provide the down payment on this house - my ex did. Over the course of the past year I have paid her back for half of the down payment. Since we would be walking away with nothing after selling then I would be forced into renting as I would not be able to provide a down payment on a home.- Essentially Im looking to take advantage of the 10,000 equity in the home that my ex is willing to just toss away if we sell.Im confident that I can cover the 2100month mortgage payment on my own. Im not entirely confident that a bank will refinance with me as the only signer, but that is something I need to investigate further. Is this a smart move on my part though? If I choose to sell in 5, 10, 15 years... will I look at this move as a poor choice or a smart choice?  <response>: 2100mo is like 23s of your monthly take home pay at 56k a year, there is no way you can afford this house, especially if you have student loan debt on top of that. Sell the house, find somewhere cheap to rent, and focus the next few years on getting your student loans paid off, building an emergency fund, building a downpayment and closing costs, and then consider buying a house that is within your budget. 