There's the conventional wisdom/ideal scenarios for home-buying and then there's real life. Worrying about being priced out is a real concern, but FOMO is never a good driver for decision-making. It's all a balance. Some people here will tell you to forget it, others will say it's OK.
I'm in a fairly similar situation as you (combined income is about $8900 a month). I bought a home ($385k) in 2020 while engaged and if you went off of "convetional wisdom," we would have been told not to buy because our income was about at your level, but we had my now-wife's apartment to finish paying for (4 more months, couldn't break the lease) and a new car and wedding to pay for. We were tight for a bit but made it through. Friends in the same range have recently done the same thing, and it's tough at times but they adjusted well.
Now we've increased our income and have plans to try for a kid in the next calendar year, which would tighten our budget quite a bit, causing us to re-think our location to move closer to family. Because you have family nearby, that will decrease child care substantially for a lot of factors.
By budgeting and doing all of these calculations, you are already ahead of a lot of people in similar scenarios. My advice to you is to look at homes, but don't rush into home-buying. Try budgeting for a few months with what a mortgage would be like ($3k or so). Homes are expensive and kids even more so, though that's a problem for later on. Because you have no interest in moving, maybe look at more "forever" type homes than starter homes, even if it takes you another year or two to find the right one. Fixed rent is fine, homes can become a financial drain extremely quickly. You're fortunate that you can focus simply on your current city and find the exact location and home type you want.
tyler289 t1_iy9r6c1 wrote
Reply to comment by ProspectiveHomeBuye in Buying a house next year, what’s a reasonable budget for mortgage payment? by ProspectiveHomeBuye
There's the conventional wisdom/ideal scenarios for home-buying and then there's real life. Worrying about being priced out is a real concern, but FOMO is never a good driver for decision-making. It's all a balance. Some people here will tell you to forget it, others will say it's OK.
I'm in a fairly similar situation as you (combined income is about $8900 a month). I bought a home ($385k) in 2020 while engaged and if you went off of "convetional wisdom," we would have been told not to buy because our income was about at your level, but we had my now-wife's apartment to finish paying for (4 more months, couldn't break the lease) and a new car and wedding to pay for. We were tight for a bit but made it through. Friends in the same range have recently done the same thing, and it's tough at times but they adjusted well.
Now we've increased our income and have plans to try for a kid in the next calendar year, which would tighten our budget quite a bit, causing us to re-think our location to move closer to family. Because you have family nearby, that will decrease child care substantially for a lot of factors.
By budgeting and doing all of these calculations, you are already ahead of a lot of people in similar scenarios. My advice to you is to look at homes, but don't rush into home-buying. Try budgeting for a few months with what a mortgage would be like ($3k or so). Homes are expensive and kids even more so, though that's a problem for later on. Because you have no interest in moving, maybe look at more "forever" type homes than starter homes, even if it takes you another year or two to find the right one. Fixed rent is fine, homes can become a financial drain extremely quickly. You're fortunate that you can focus simply on your current city and find the exact location and home type you want.