<prompt> Human: My SO and I have been saving for a house for the past year. We currently have 14,000 in savings towards our down payment on top of 3,000 in savings for emergencies. I currently earned loan forgiveness for over half my student loans that brought my total student loan debt down to 13,000. This means we could pay off all my student loan debt right now, but it would eliminate almost all of our savings for a house.In an ideal situation we would save 20 down this would probably take another year and then buy our house. The area we are looking in has houses around 200,000 to 220,000. Our priority when getting a house is to have a low monthly payment, so we are trying to avoid any 3 down mortgage situations. This would be our first house, so we know there are some additional mortgage offers there, but all the ones we have found have higher monthly payments.Things we are trying to consider are ... if we pay off my student loans, we have no debt our cars are payed for and we pay off our credit cards in full each month. Interest rates for mortgages are supposed to go up, and the highest interest rate I have on one of my student loans is 6.55. If we dont pay them off all at once, we will use the avalanche method to pay them off using the full monthly payment we did before the forgiveness went through.We have also had a family member offer to help us with the down payment a sort of giftloan combo that we could pay back over several years. We arent opposed to this idea, but we arent in love with it either, especially if it ends up being more of a loan situation because loans among family members tend to cause tension.So is it better to pay off the student loans and have no debt? Is it better to get a house before mortgage interest rates are raised again?  <response>: I would personally pay off the student loan debt first, especially at 6.5. I would boost your emergency fund up to 7-10K or so, and save 20 down. Your HH income can have a big impact on whats the best strategy though. 