Not only should you rent for a while to get a feeling for the different neighborhoods, you should also “practice” making your desired house payment, like this:

Lets say you rent a place for $1000/month but if you bought a house, the monthly payment would be $1500/month.

Every month, make the rent payment and put $500 into a savings account of some sort.

After a year, not only will you have made progress towards a down payment, but you will also really understand what it is like to live with a $1500/month payment. Do you both have to work to support this? Could you survive if one of you didn’t, etc.

I make this suggestion to lots of people I know and it always goes over well. In San Diego where rent is $2,000/month and the payment on that same house would be $3,500/month, it is very important to “practice.”