How do you even find the privacy to make the eighth baby with seven kids in a 2br apartment? making babies in the same room or bed with your other children is probably criminal today, just because it happened in our culture in the past does not mean it’s normal today. Slavery, weekly bathing and 8 kids in a 2 br are all chapters in the history book that we should be proud are no longer the norm. The good ole days weren’t always that good.

As far as inflation goes, yes, people paid 30k in 1970 for a home in So Cal and before their mortgage was paid off they paid more for a car, but don’t make that the plan, have that be a lucky fringe benefit if it happens.

My advice for the OP, just rent a bigger place for a year and re-evaluate. One baby usually becomes two, don’t lock yourself into a depreciating market while your big picture isn’t solidified. If you buy a 2br, you will have another kid and need a three, then when they turn 5 or six, you want a yard. Then when they are 8, you are making more money and want a better school. Selling once or twice in a five year period is costly unless values are rising and right now they aren’t. If it were 2002, I’d tell you to buy whatever you need now, but it’s 2009 and the only piggies buying are those that aren’t stretching and are in a position in life where size, style and location of their housing won’t change for at least a decade. You’ve done an admirable job thus far, stay with it, or, to quote paramount, “welcome to temecula.”