<prompt> Human: Im looking into a house where the mortgage paymentutilities are about 50-60 of my take home income and as wary as I am of this, I want to have a home in a solid school distrcit before my son heads into school in a year.Renting is an option, but where I live its very hit or miss, and nearly as expensive. ...Rent my money goes to the landlord. Buy, my money goes to an asset. However, having rented in the area before I project renting would be 200-300 cheaper per month, if I find a modest enough apartment. Im looking at being able to put away as little as 100-200 a month. Im trying to stay positive about this, and a promotion at work is likely on the way, so Ill be getting more income shortly.50-60 sounds really high. And Im afraid of the responses Ill get. I really want a house before my son goes to school.  <response>: Let me tell you, I bought a house recently. Its in great shape. Everybody said it was move in ready. Ive put about 6k into it in the last 2 months. Im putting in another 2k this month because the sewer is unexpectedly plugged up with tree roots and need to be dug out. I can afford all these upgradesrepairs because my mortgage is 10 of my income. And it still feels like Im not saving that much money.50-60 is incredibly high. Thats how much all your necessities food, housing, utilities, transportation, insurance, etc should cost altogether. Its high enough that a single relatively small hiccup will throw you off track and into never ending debt. Its high enough that you probably cant afford to lose your job, ever, at all which is unrealistic. Its high enough that you will probably never get to do anything fun or travel or anything that you should do with a child.I dont have the right words to tell you how incredibly stressful this would be. BUT if you are insistent on doing it, go on a trial basis. For the next year, put away 60 of your take home every single month. What you currently pay for rent counts for maintenance and increased utilities costs you will encounter. If you miss a month or even come close, you are definitely not ready to buy. Im looking at being able to put away as little as 100-200 a month.Again, this is an incredibly small margin for error. My utilities fluctuate by as much as 300month. For example, the first month, they charged me connection fees for everything, and three months of garbage service. I also had to get a lawn mower and weed whacker 300. Rent my money goes to the landlord. Buy, my money goes to an asset.This is not entirely true. This is why you should use the rent vs buy calculator on the sidebar.If your rent is 200 cheaper, it will also be at least 200month cheaper in maintenanceutilities. Thats 400month total you save. Not accounting for the fact that scheduling maintenancerepairs is such a hassle.Keep in mind that youll probably pay 2-4 closing cost when you buy, PMI if you pay less than 20 down, and 10 costs when you sell. So youd need 20 appreciation and putting 400month towards equity in order to break even.Since real estate prices go up with inflation except during the bubble, youre talking about 6-8 years before you break even if youre buying a 300k house with a low enough interest rate that youd put 400month into principal. Likely, youre not because thats above average house price and because interest rates have gone up.You might very well plan to live there for 7 years and pay every mortgage payment on time. But what if you dont? What if you lose your job? Or they cut back hours? Or you have a medical emergency? Or any other number of things that could happen?Basically, please dont do this. Rent until you have enough saved up for a down payment that you can put all housing costs mortgagerent utilities repairmaintenance at under 25 of your take home. 