<prompt> Human: Okay, so heres the deal. I live in Southern California San Diego, where both the rental market and housing market is absolutely atrocious. I currently bring in about 2200 per month takehome pay. I have no debts at all. I just renewed my rental lease, and my son of a bitch landlord raised my rent by TEN percent this year. TEN. If this trend continues, I will be SOL in 3 to 4 years time unless my income goes up drastically which it actually might, but I dont want to rely on that possibility.Based on my meager income especially for this area, I have never considered buying, because even small condos will easily cost upwards of 200k even in the less desirable neighborhoods. After getting fucked by a 10 rent increase this year, im looking more into it though.I have done some searching and found that there are multiple condos listed right now for under 150k, with the cheapest being around 100k, and most have HOA fees of around 200mo. All are about 450sqft and in wishywashy neighborhoods but honestly, im perfectly ok with that for now if it means locking in a fixed payment. If I do buy, I would be using a VA loan so I wouldnt have to worry about PMI. So here is my question. Even though my take home is only about 2200 a month, is it realistic to consider buying at that price 120k in order to lock in a monthly payment? Especially considering that The ONLY way that rents are going in this city are sky high...and it isnt going to stop any time soon. If I stay in the rental market until my income goes up and im in a better position to buy which is not guaranteed to happen in the next few years, I will be paying 900 monthly in rent in just a few years time...and that is AFTER splitting half of the rent with a roommate. I currently pay 712mo for rent with a roommate now that it has been raised 10So, good idea or bad?  <response>: Orange County here. How much money do you have saved as a down payment?10 seems a bit high of an increase, my rent just increased by 4. Rent cannot increase 10 year over year indefinitely. 