I agree with the relationship advice given here. Regarding the financial situation, consider this. A house’s price should fluctuate between 90 and 120 times its monthly rent. (Meaning, a house that rents for $1800 a month should be worth about $200K, give or take 10%-15%). That relationship has held historically in California, the rest of the country, and in most non-communist countries as well. Today, house prices in So Cal are at a ridiculously high 290 times monthly rent. As it happened in 1990-1996, house prices will drop and continue dropping (and rents will increase somewhat) until they get to a resonable level.
And if you have a nice place to live in, as you do now, what is the hurry? RE is cyclical, it has ups and downs, and right now we are at the peak. The fastest road to financial ruin is to buy high and sell low.
