<prompt> Human: Hello, Ive been lurking this subreddit a few weeks now and decided to make a throwaway and ask for some advice.So here is my situation now. I have a college degree political science, not practical where I live, glad I figured that out afterwards and I work at a bank in operations. My salary is 25k at the moment and I net about 1600 a month. Heres a rough outline of what my budget looks like now.425 - rent,72 - car insurance,50 - Heat dont pay electric, water, or trash at my apt. for now,30 - internet no cable,150 - groceries minimum,100 - gas,10- phone insurance still not paying the full bill, will change in a few months,10-gym,100- savings,100- Credit cards,260- Student loans.I have 700 in Credit card debt that will be wiped out when I get my tax refund, so starting in March Ill have an extra 100. My student loans are split in two. 185 goes to Dept. of Ed. and 75 goes to Sallie Mae. My total debt between these two is 55k, and the Sallie Mae amount will jump to 350 a month in August 2015 Im paying interest only on that now.I was going to re-up on my apt. this fall but my landlord is raising my rent to 475 and I will start paying electric. This is when I started looking at actually buying a house. There are some that are affordable to me on a monthly basis, in fact I can definitely get one where payment utils would be lower than my current total rent. I am just wondering if it would be a good idea to go for a 50k or less house with my total loan debt, especially because of the mandatory increase.Let me know what you think, any advice is appreciated.Edit: commasAssistant: I dont think you will be approved for a mortgage when your existing debt load is twice your salary, nor does it look like you can afford the upkeep costs that are associated with owning a home. Even more worrisome is your income situation - 25k sounds very low to me. Are you looking to increase that, either via promotion or moving elsewhere?Human: I just had my annual review in my current position, Im getting a 5-8 raise sometime in March. I could end up with a promotion later in the year, but thats not a sure thing. Im open to taking another position anywhere in the US, really, but dont really have any leads to a position that would be a vast improvement. I could move too, that would be another expense and the circumstances would have to be just right.  <response>: Brother I have 20k in more student debt than you do, but I make almost three times what you make and I cant even begin to feel like I have the privilege to even think about home ownership yet. Not that its not doable but you just have so many other priorities first. Income, career growth and job security are probably the first things Id worry about. 