<prompt> Human: My spouse and I are considering purchasing a home in the coming months but are considering the impact on our short and long term financial health. We are committed to living in the SF penninsula by virtue of my contract for a minimum of 7 more years.Income: Combined total income of 77K215K. Assuming my husband doesnt change jobs see below, our incomes increase annually and predictively in the following manner over the next 7 years.Mine: 77K--79K--79K--79K--85K--89K--94K.His: 215K--235K--285K--325K--360K--390K--415K.Total: 292K--314K--354--394K--445K--479K--509K.Current financial obligations: Our existing debt is student loans and a car payment. My husband has 181K remaining at 3.75 amortized over 8 more years 2032month payment. My loans are a total of 149K at 5.6, currently in income based repayment taxes are married filing separately to maintain this with expected Public Service Loan Forgiveness in 10 years; payments this year are 1052month but will drop to 100month next year and for the remainder of the time when based on my salary alone we are assuming no changes to PSLF program. Finally, we have a 432month no interest car payment with 5 more payments remaining. Current assets: We are young professionals and my husband had been working for two years. I am just finishing graduate school and start work next month. We have about 20K in cash on hand and a total of 48K in our retirement accounts. He currently contributes the statutory max to his 401K each year, and we are determining how much I will contribute once I start work next month.We live in the SF Bay area. Rentutilities for our 1 bedroom is approximately 2300 a month and we live in a desirable neighborhood close to our jobs. Were we to continue renting over the next 7-8 years, we would likely move to a 2 bedroom unit in 2 years which we anticipate could cost somewhere between 2800-3200month. We also anticipate having a baby approximately 2-3 years from now.The biggest variable other than earthquakerecession etc. is if my husband will change jobs approximately 2 years from now. Doing so would likely be associated with a max of a 40, min of 20 immediate pay cut, with potentially minimal raises each year after that. We are considering buying a 2 bedroom condotownhousesingle-family home in silicon valley where we live and work. The NYT rent vs. buy calculator says that we should buy a house at 950K if we cannot rent a comparable property to rent for 2600. We have had a budget for years we typically overspend the budget and projected the impact of a mortgage against our budget in many permutations including:--900K home with 10 down borrowing money from family with a flexible obligation to repay--900K home with 20 down again borrowing money from parents, although would need to repay some of this within 8 years--1M home with 10 and 20 down with similar obligations as above.--Each of the above scenarios accounting for a 20, 30, and 40 paycut for my husband. Our math says that we could do it relatively easily if he doesnt change jobs, but we would be tight month to month if he takes a 30-40 paycut. We havent accounted for any tax benefit from mortgage interest deduction given that this isnt a month to month benefit and occurs only 1xyear and is subject to changes. When we look at our budgets, our housing costs to income ratio, and our loan to income ratio even including the nebulous obligations to repay our parents, it doesnt seem like a terrible financial decision. But given how unbelievably huge of a purchase this is, would appreciate some third party analysis of our situation. Given the nature of the area and our current situation, we arent even sure what we can get in the 900K-1M price range. But, we are looking for a starter home, and want this to be a sound, rational, economic decision--not an emotional one. Are we crazy? Are we right? Should we wait and risk interest rates and housing prices in the bay area continuing to go up?Thanks in advance for any thoughtsinputjudgement! Please ask the hard questions we arent asking ourselves!  <response>: I think you should plan to rent for at least two years.In that time, max your retirement accounts and save for a possible down payment.In two years, it sounds like you will know more about careers, kids, and can re-plan then.Good luck. 