<prompt> Human: My wife and I have been married for a year, lived together in our own home for 2 and just brought home our first baby. Before we even got out of the hospital, my mother-in-law started asking us to buy her house.Shotgun blast of hopefully relevant information:My mother-in-law is two years from retirement and wants to move in to an apartment at a retirement community immediately. Like, preferably before she even retires. MIL and her already-retired husband want us to take over their mortgage to accomplish this.We at least all realize that we dont know anything about assuming a mortgage and that some solid legal counsel will be needed on both sides of the transaction. My in-laws have not asked for, and my wife and I will not accept, anything less than a formal agreement. No handshake deals or mutual understandings. And nothing drafted by the parties, either.In-laws bought their house in, if I recall, 2008 after getting fed up with several years of bad experiences with landlords. It is a nice place, and theyve kept it well, although they havent really added any value to it. Their house is in a suburban area near a small city about an hour from where my family now lives.I bought a house in the rural area where I work years before meeting my wife and, unfortunately, it is quite a way from her work. The in-laws place is about a 10 minute commute for her, while our place is almost an hour.I dont know how reliable this is, but I looked up the in-laws house on Zillow, and it appears that it was listed at 119,900 at the beginning of 2008, was taken off the market, then purchased by my in-laws late that year for 122,500. Could they actually have paid OVER the last asking price?From their county RPTS site, they pay approximately working from memory here 5,000 a year in combined taxes. I dont know what their utilities and other expenses are, but they are perfectly willing to give us detailed information on that. I doubt it could be any less than our current expenses.I also dont know particulars of the mortgage, but MIL told me that theres about 101,000 outstanding and they currently pay about 1,100 per month inclusive of taxes and homeowners insurance into escrow.I bought my house in 2005 for 60,000. I refinanced 3 years ago via a promissory note with my own parents. Theres about 20,000 left on the note to be paid over the next 12 years. I also put another approximately 50,000 into the house since purchase, all of which was paid for as savings for the purpose allowed. Our monthly payment to my parents is 300.Our taxes are about 3,000 per year combined and our utilities are another 3,000-4,000, depending on the price of heating gas in the winter. I shouldve mentioned that we are all situated in central New York State.We have a household income of about 90,000 pre-tax. Our savings are pitiably low right now, what with baby stuff to buy and hospital bills our son was very pre-term and we were in the NICU with him for over three months--weve got really quite good insurance, but even so.... We will need a new vehicle within a year as we must replace my pickup with something more baby- and gas-friendly.The area were in now is small and has low housing turnover--people tend to buy a house and raise a family; there isnt much moving in and out or around within the community. Ive been a long time and feel quite confident that it would take a couple of years to sell our place. While its a nice little home, I think that it would suffer in comparison to others available, even to those looking for starter homes.The one plus for our house is that we get a bustling summer tourist influx and for about 16 weeks in the summer its possible we could rent the house by the week for somewhere in the range of 1,000-1,500 per week. Wed have to clean the place or hire a cleaner and wed use a booking agent who would take a percentage. But if we just shuttered the place in the winter, it might be that our current property could at least be a net-zero cost until we can sell.There are some intangibles here, and unfortunately they compete. My wife is tiring of her commute. Her job can be stressful and Id like to lessen her load, what with a new baby and all. She also is the higher earner, has the good health insurance and there are no decent alternatives for her line of work more convenient to our current whereabouts believe me, weve been looking and networking around here ever since she moved in and she realized, yes, its a long commute, especially in January in the Northeast. Plus, she has student loans of over 200,000 that will be forgiven if she completes another seven years with her current employer. To say nothing of gas and wear-and-tear on her vehicle.My concerns are totally selfish and I have already conceded that they dont outweigh the above. I just fucking hate the suburbs. I like my little house with a patch of land and only a couple of close neighbors. Weve got chickens and dogs and cats. My commute is about 5 minutes. My work schedule, however, is more flexible than hers and I can even arrange a work-from-home for some of it. I might only have to make the trip three times a week if we moved.How do I calculate whether this makes financial sense? What questions should I ask of her parents and of our lawyer? Any thoughts on assumption of an exisiting mortgage? It feels like it could be full of pitfalls for the un-savvy. We dont have the means to refinance and by the place outright and the MILs big selling point is that we could just take over her place without needing a 20 down payment.Im not sure what else may be helpful in giving advice, but will surely add anything that PF thinks is necessary.Also, general retirement planning question: Ive always been given to understand that it is inadvisable to take on large debts, such as a mortgage for a primary home, as one approaches retirement. For my own familys planning purposes, whats the conventional wisdom on this? Id like to avoid the situation that my in-laws find themselves in.  <response>: No, just tell her no. With a new baby in the mix, it would be extremely ill advised to take on new debt, especially with those kind of numbers, with a 200,000 student loan over your head. 