<prompt> Human: Quick facts: 25M Single New York state WNY 62Kyr with a pretty stable job 63K in various student loans ranging from 3.4 - 8.8 14K owed on a new car 2 Contribute 4 to my retirement accountCurrently, I rent a 3br with two other dudes. This costs me about 400mo between rent utilities. 240 on my car payment and about 1,000 in student loans. Plus all the other expenses; car insurance, groceries, spending money etc.I want to start considering buying a home and ideally Id have enough for a small down payment by the end of the year. Where I live houses are extremely cheap, but the taxes are high from what Ive told and I dont really understand them.You can get an OK starter home with 2-3 BR, 1BA and maybe a garage for around 70-100K depending on the region, but this would also be like an 80 year old house.You can get a much nicer, newer home 40 years old for 150-200K.Id much rather buy a good home I plan on living in for a long time, rather than buying a cheaper, crappier first home with the intent of selling it and getting something nicer in 10 years. But this of course would be much more expensive month to month. And itd be more difficult to come up with the down payment for a 150K home than an 80K oneIve tried googling property tax codes for the various suburbs but I seriously dont understand what Im reading. School zone taxes? Other taxes based on the value of the house? Etc...Then theres insurance, saving you for when something breaks, general spending money and so on.Can anyone here tell me more about the real cost of buying and owning a home? A coworker said I should probably expect to spend 1000 more per month than I already do on my rent. Is that realistic?I do plan on setting up an appointment with a realtor, I imagine theyd be able to give me the best, most accurate information but I also dont want to waste time if its pretty obviously a bad idea or whatever.  <response>: Focus on bringing your debt down before investing in a house. 