The prodigal son! Eclipxe I am very proud of you and a little proud of myself, there are untold numbers of people who read these boards and never post, it’s nice to hear the stories. Your fundamentals are very good, perhaps this country will be just fine and a generation of younguns that were priced out were forced to learn as opposed to buy. This will serve you in your future. When I was you age I just bought a house because people told me to, the bank said I qualified and that’s about all I knew, fortunately for me, 20 years ago, they made sure you actually did, but it was luck and not research that saved me. Since you were educated in Temecula public schools and write very well, you are a walking billboard for the schools.

One thing that will be huge for you in the future is living near your family when you have your own kids, you are making the right call. I also like your choice of neighborhoods. Even though you defended some of the apartments, those three are void of apartments and contain the top schools. All three qualify as “move up” neighborhoods, in the past the larger and nicer tracts were priced higher and I would have encouraged you to cut your teeth on a smaller starter house. This repo thing has kinda thrown things out of whack and you can get deals pretty much anywhere, so it might be wise to just get the best house you can afford and skip the starter home phase, then you won’t need to sell when you hit the next phase in life, because there is no telling where the market will be then. Don’t over extend yourself, try to afford the house on your income alone (don’t factor the girlfriend’s income, even if you marry her when you have kids her income may go away) and if you can pull it off under 3x income on a fixed loan, your future earnings will rise but your payment won’t, it will make for a pleasant life. I’d be honored to be neighbors with you, but be warned, I can be a bad influence, especially when it comes to happy hour once I get the bar built in the new pad.