<prompt> Human: Throwaway account. We are on the fence about buying a house in orange county and would really appreciate input.Husband and I are both 29 yo. Planning for children in the next 2-3 years.I have 20,000 saved. 20,000 car loan at 1 interest monthly car payment is 405.00. no other debt.Husband has 0 saved. 40,000 in school loans at 4-6 interestmonthly payment of 400.00 and around 4000 in credit card debt.We have a combined income of 126,000. Both have been at our jobs long term since graduation in 2011.We are currently paying monthly: 1850.00 rent and approx 450.00 in bills.We found a condo in Anaheim we like for 400,000 350.00month HOA fee.We found financing using FHA loans at an interest rate of 4.87. Loan is structured as follows: We will leave 14K as a down payment, and closing costs should be around 8,000. We also have to pay PMI for the entirety of the loan, this comes out to 275.00month. They calculate our monthly payment to be 3210.00 which includes principal and interest, homeowners insurance, taxes, PMI, and hoa. Our hope is to buy this condo and sell in 3 years. We dont expect a huge gain but at least to not give away so much in rent. A rough estimate we have is that after the mortgage, bills, car and loan payments we should still have 2360.00 to live and invest off of. Essentially that would only be for gas and food, emergency and savinginvesting.We first thought to buy a home for tax purposes but it doesnt seem that will help too much, please correct me if i am wrong. If you dont think i should buy a condo now what would you suggest i do that may either help with taxes or bring in more than the 2 that banks offer i put 20K in savings.  <response>: 350mo HO fee is enough for me to not want to proceed with that purchase if I were in your shoes. Not to mention 275mo for PMI.Is the 126k between you and your spouse pre or post tax? I assume pre-tax based on other numbers given.Why are you carrying 4k in CC debt if you have the money to pay it off?It seems to me like youre in a rush to stop renting and start owning despite the financial implications of said decision.My wife and I despite wanting to own a home for the past 2 years have put it off because financially it didnt make sense with 2 car payments and only 1 income after having our first child last year and wife became a stay at home mom. We are just now getting to a position where it makes sense to start looking with our cars paid off and being able to save more money per month.I understand the feeling of Im throwing away money in rent, but you also have to realize HO fees to an extent and PMI while sometimes tax deductible is also just money being thrown away.In my opinion, you shouldnt be spending more than 13 of your total take home pay on mortgage. In your case it seems you would be spending more like 50-60. Again, not 100 because it depends on whether income was pre or post tax. 