<prompt> Human: I am 28, in graduate school, and my husband is a teacher. We collectively make about 40k per year not a lot, I know. Its also possible that I may be pregnant though thats a discussion for another sub. If I want to buy a small, inexpensive house in three years or less, what would you all suggest we do first? Pay down student loans? Start a savings account? Its hard to save money since we had a lot of moving expenses last year we relocated to Seattle for a job that fell through at the last minute and it ate our savings. We have about 20k between the two of us in student debt working away at it, though. Current on payments.. Should we just keep renting forever even though with renting, it feels like our money is disappearing into a hole? Is buying a house a bad idea for us? We live in New Orleans.Assistant: What are average home prices for where you want to live?Human: We are looking in the Hollygrove area. Looking to spend around 120-130. I keep seeing renovated homes going in that area for our price range, so even if I wait a while I will still probably continue looking in that area. Cant imagine it getting gentrified that fast. I ride my bike through there all the time because there are a lot of orange and grapefruit and pomegranate trees planted by the sidewalks and I pick them. I see when new places come up for sale, and it seems really affordable.  <response>: We are looking in the Hollygrove area. Looking to spend around 120-130. Based on the really loose 3x rule for house buying, 120k is about the upper limit you should be spending on a house while on a 40k combined income.Youll definitely want to pay off your loans and save up for a down payment first though. 