<prompt> Human: My husband and I are interested in buying our first home in Sydney. We have been renting for 6 years, we have 2 kids, and Im still getting over the sticker shock what it costs to own a home Im from Canada. What the eff are we doing wrong? I feel like we need to get off this hamster wheel.Additional info - we have about 100K saved up and earn about 200k per year.  <response>: We bought something small at the outermost edges of Melbourne. 7 years later we are about 4 months off of having it paid off. We love our little house now and have no real interest in moving unlessuntill we need more bedrooms as we plan to have 2 more kids. Just had our first child 4 months ago.having said that houses seem to have almost doubled in the 7 years since we bought. Although your wage is also more than double what our wage was when we bought.And sure its a pain driving to the 40 mins to work in rthe cbd and back every day. But Ive gotten used to it and I often listen to educational podcasts in the car. Plus I love drivingmy car ;-I think the place most people get it wrong is expectations. Its your first home. Youre starting at the bottom of the housing ladder, you pretty much need to be looking at the shittiest options. At the end of the day it wont matter as long as your family is there and its your own home! 