irvinesinglemom,
There is tremendous pressure in our society to own a home. (Never mind get married and have kids. I am single, and late 30s, so talk about pressure!)
That said, the pressure’s only in our heads. You sound really smart and successful. If you succumb to it, you will ultimately be doing yourself and your children a huge disservice.
I’m not saying don’t ever buy. Just don’t buy in the next 18 months. You will regret it. You work very hard, and if you buy you will end up losing a lot of money. Based on the areas you are talking about, what would that be? $50K, $100K? That’s 6 months to a year’s worth of work for you! Can you imagine going to work everyday knowing you are working to pay off an ‘investment’ that’s losing value every single day? Talk about a waste of time and energy. You’d be better off taking a year off from work, and putting in some quality time with your kids.
I’m sure you can find a nice rental, and sit tight. Having that kind of discipline will pay off in the long run. Your timing (Feb 07) is when the tsunami should be hitting us, so wait it out. You won’t be losing anything by sitting on the sidelines for a while.
There are some threads on this forum about how a house purchase is very emotional. See if you can search for them using the key word “emotions” in the search bar (or maybe “emotional”). Once you read through them, you’ll see the intellectual/rational side to you will be back in charge.