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What would you do in this situation?

Buy a home that's in a good location, location, location....did I mention location?

Three bedroom, two bath, two car garage, withing walking distance of the elementary school.

Did I mention location?

You're young,.... buy a fixer upper. In Florida you can literally buy these fixer uppers for the cost of the dirt and the wrecked house is FREE.

Just understand one thing about rehabing a house.....whatever repairs you can see with your eyesballs,... let's say $10,000 of cost,... there will be at least another $10,000 in repairs that you can't see.

Good luck and best regards,

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Gary Spicuzza, *SAFE
Copyright 1956.
No Rights Reserved.
*Self Appointed Financial Expert

[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']Can you qualify for an FHA loan with 3 or 3.5% down? That way you can receive the $8,000 credit, put little cash down and move in an area where it works better for you. A 1.5 hour commute to work does not seem economical (if you move closer to work will your husband’s work be further?) [/FONT]
[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']Seems like you know your way around money, however since the job contract is expiring in about 10 months it could have an impact (Anything can happen in 10 months, I would start researching your job and see how many places are hiring and if you can do some research on how many applicants they are getting... that way you can see how your job sector is doing.[/FONT]

careful here, you may get assistance as a first time homebuyer and grants but its still an expense when your employement is not secure, a home in Illinois should be cheaper than 200000 given the current market, fixer upper is a good possibility, like it was said, location is what makes this work

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I would wait. The fact that you personally don't have job security is a big risk.

Grit your teeth and continue to save so you get your 20% deposit plus the 6 months living expenses.

The truth is that no one knows what's happening with the global economy. So hold fire and wait till your have fully built your safety net.

Perhaps in 10 months time, when you've got a more secure job, you can go for it.

Stop!!!!! If I was a bank, a responsible bank (Which is tough to find) I wouldn't lend to you if I was held a gun point. It is completely irresponsible of you even thinking about purchasing a house when your husband doesn't have a job and you have school loan debt. Move to a better neigborhood, rent cheap and save up your 20% down payment and pay off your debt. Trust me, you will be sorry if you go for the house idea.

Wait! Pay off the student loan. Build up 20% + emergency fund. If you move to fast your dream will turn into a nightmare in a flash.

Think about hiring a financial coach. A couple hundred dollars invested in some great guidance will make a huge difference.

as mentioned, be careful since you still have a debt. sort that out.
and carefully plan what sort of a house you want to buy..clear everything out..
work out a plan on how the money is going to be paid..
at the same time pay special attention to repairing costs and maintenance costs..
see if you can afford it..
pay attention to how you are going to manage living costs along with this..

First Time Home Buyers If you are a dabbler in property purchase market, just watch out for these mistakes that you might commonly make, Specially First time home buyers. * Getting Turned On By Flashy Features: There was this bungalow in my neighborhood that was once occupied by a celebrity. The present owner put up the sale price as $14 million just because it had some personal furniture of the famous figure. A fan of that celeb would generally fall for the house, but I wouldn’t. Is it worth spending such a huge amount of money just for some vicarious celebrity feelings? All my celebrity euphoria will melt down once I start paying up the loan that I take for purchasing the property. * Don’t Fall For Facilities That Are No Use To You: Are you impressed by that huge swimming # pool in the tips for first time home buyersbungalow lawn that you’ve recently seen for buying ? Do you really need that swimming pool? Don’t opt for that house if you really are not used to swimming frequently. Ultimately you’ll only end up paying huge amounts of money for a feature that you don’t use at all. Similarly any garden inclusions like play features for children don’t make sense to buy if you don’t use them. They only add to the cost of the property you buy. # Keep Money For Repair Work: If you analyze the reason for the large number of foreclosures that have happened recently, you’ll find that people have taken mortgage loans to their maximum capacity and were finding paying them back very difficult. Also their loans did not allow them to keep aside any money for repair work. Now, repair work is inevitable as you might encounter a problem with your house any time. If you don’t save up money for that you’ll be in deep trouble. Also you can get your house renovated later on and that will increase the value of your asset.checklist for home buying # Don’t Overestimate Tax Savings: You might think that paying interest on mortgage loans is going to give you tax benefits. That is true, but it is not all the beneficial. You can avail tax benefits in other ways too. Suppose you have a big family and your income is less than $100,000 annually, even then you get huge tax benefits. There’s no necessity for you to buy a property because of that. # Find Out About The Neighbors: Before you finalize the deal with the landlord you should find out as much as you can about the house and its surrounds. You should check different parts of the house for any defects. Find out if it is well connected with the rest of the city and if it is located in a self sufficient area so that you don’t have to run to the city center for even the smallest household necessities. Something that might be difficult for you to assess might be the nature of the neighborhood. You should put efforts in knowing the kind of neighbors you have and the kind of activities they do. Even though we might not interact much with neighbors we simply cannot live in isolation.