[quote=Scarlett] ….saving another 10% down payment or 50-60K may take years and years, realistically (in my case). In the mean time, with kids, it’s nice to have a larger house & yard while they are still young. I didn’t mean that I would buy something right away, but perhaps in the next year or two – hopefully by then the prices would have reached their last/bottom leg in areas I am looking.
[/quote]

Scarlett, I am sure that you are a wonderful person, but if it would take you “years and years” to save 10% of the price of the home you want to buy, then you cannot afford it. The only way you can “afford” it is if its price only goes up, not down. That is never guaranteed. It is widespread denial of the simple ‘cash flow’ criterion for affordability that got the entire economy into its current fix.