<prompt> Human: Hey PF!I hear people complain all the time about buying a house they couldnt afford, but have any of you played it safe and regretted it? Anyone regret getting debt free instead of getting that dream home? Thanks for taking time to read this post. It will help me make a very important decision in my life.Thanks!  <response>: My wife and I reached the time to buy a home phase around the height of the pre-2008 housing bubble. We shopped around for around a year or so, but were conistently looking at 2 bedroom 1 bath homes for 120k, at a time when we were making a combined 40k a year. We actually looked at the house we now live in back in 2007, and the seller wanted around 100k for it. At that point I just accepted that we were never going to own a house, and walked away. It sold shortly thereafter to someone who also could not afford it, and they went into foreclosure after just a few months. The market collapsed, and the big banks were desperate to get negative properties off of their books. My wife and I had plenty of cash saved up from our previous efforts to buy a house, and excellent credit. Bought the place for 42k in the spring of 09. Its small, its simple, and I wouldnt really call it Dream Home material. It will however be fully paid off in May of next year our last piece of debt. That in and of itself makes it my dream home. The thing to remember, is that a house is just a place where you park all your stuff while youre out living life. Its got 4 walls and a roof. My wife and I have made many happy memories in it. Thats everything I could ever want from a house. 