<prompt> Human: My wife and I are younger -- Im 26 and she is 27. We both have good, safe jobs. Combined gross annual income pre-tax is a little over 90,000 per year. Debts are around 20k. I have a car loan that is at 13k at 0.9 interest, so monthly payment on that is around 250. My wife has a personal loan around 8k at 6 from consolidating credit card debt awhile back. Shes doing great chipping away at it! Thats pretty much it for our monthly obligations, besides regular cell phone bill 50, and utilities in our apartment. Realistically - how much house should we afford? It would be our first house, but we arent looking for a fixer-upper, as we have no idea how to do anything like that. We have enough for a downpayment, but wed pay PMI. Credit scores are above 800. I really want to get into a house soon before interest rates go up, plus I want to start building equity rather than the opportunity cost of using my money for rent. This year as been all about extinguishing debt -- my college loans are paid off and I paid off my older car -- until someone crashed into me and totaled it. : Thanks for your help! We eventually will be looking to start a family -- somewhere within a year or so were figuring.---So edits: thanks to all whom are responding! House prices around here arent crazy high -- Midwest suburb prices, so we could get a starter for around 160K that needs updates and fixes, but I have no experience updating anything or being handy. I know thats probably what Youtube is for. The house we were looking at was completely redone in the hottest, highest desired neighborhood for 225k.We would plan to live off one salary for awhile while using the other to pay off debt. Probably would pay off the expensive personal loan. We do have a grasp of finances. We combined households two years ago -- and weve paid off almost 40k in loans since getting together. Im debt free besides my car -- paid off my 27k school loans. My wife came in with 18k credit card debt at 18. Were down to 8k now for her as we consolidated her loan to the 5.9 mark that Ive quoted to be more responsible.While doing all the above - we will be saving 1k per month to recoup our savings. Eventually, Id like to pay extra towards to loan to blitz it at least 112 extra to simulate paying biweekly. We have been growing our income each year -- got a new job last year that added 20k to our income. Looking for a promotion within the next year and my leaders at work love me.Assistant: You are doing great so far.A few tips: pay off your debt. Save for a down payment without pmi. Dont hurry yourself into buying for whatever reason especially if its some sorcery about future interest rates or market development. Do the rest of the personal finance homework 401k, etc.. To your question: in my humble opinion, you currently cannot afford anything yet. How much you can afford later depends a lot on how much you can save monthly and how stable you income is.Edit: just read that you got enough for a downpayment. How much is that?Human: Around 12,000, so we would probably be looking to pay PMI.  <response>: Not really enough for a down payment in most markets. You havent really given us enough to go on though. You make 90k gross but you still have relatively small amounts of debt. You dont tell us what other savings you have, if any. If 12k is the extent of it, then this is an indication that your spending is quite high relative to your income. How much are you paying for rent? Do you have an emergency fund in addition to this 12k? How much in there? Are you saving for retirement? What percentages?PMI isnt a great idea, but its not the end of the world either. Id say youd still should aim for a minimum of 10 down, plus additional money for closing costs, plus keeping your 3-6 month emergency fund intact during the move there are frequently posts here from people who bought a new house and used all available cash and then have a house emergency soon after. You have the added complication of wanting to start a family in the near future as well which will bring a whole bunch of new costs, expected and not.Get a strict budget in order so you know exactly how much you are spending. Start budgeting the amount you expect to spend on your goal house every month - so if your goal house is going to run you 1800month for mortgagetaxesinsurance, and you are paying 1000month rent now, start saving an additional 800month towards the house. Dont forget that youll also need to budget 1-3 of the value of the home for maintenance annually - so add that in to your savings now as well. This will force you to live now on what youll have once you buy the house, and turbocharge your savings rate getting you there sooner, without over-extending yourself.Good luck! 