So - a little save just in case my network connection gets wonky.

WHAT I'M SEEING HERE -

1. Need to get prepared to buy. Got to line up credit, etc.
2. Look at what the market holds. Can we even find anything that we can afford that we've willing to live with? This will probably tell us a lot.

So - one of my big things is thinking about whether we want to buy a house or not. Here's a pro/con list:

BUY HOUSE - PRO
1. Security of owning something permanent
2. Can make deocorations, etc. that are permanent, we own it.
3. Good long term investment.
4. Getting in on a market that we eventually may not be able to afford
5. We can probably get a mortgage for about what we're paying in rent now
6. I would learn more about the area
7. I have experience owning a house - I know how to do this
8. I like real estate - the whole subject is very engaging to me
9. We can possibly rent house out if we don't continue to live here now
10. Our rent is very expensive right now.
11. I'm handy - so a fixer is a possibility
12. I can make it look any way I want
13. I can play really loud music late at night

BUY HOUSE - CON
1. The payments will probably be more steep than what we can afford now
2. We don't have a stable, permanent level form of income
3. Joe may need to uproot for a postdoc - so we may need to move in a little more than a year
4. We may be house-poor
5. I may want to go to graduate school in a little more than a year - so may need to move soon
6. It is stressful to have a mortgage and know that you are somewhat locked into it
7. Far-fetched, but what if area runs out of water
8. What if market crashes and we can't support the house, and then can't sell it?
9. We don't really have time to fix up a house right now
10. It takes time and effort to find a house. We don't really have time right now.
11. I don't know what's going on with my job - will I have it in the future?
12. A house means most likely we will have to drive to campus. We don't have the most reliable car in the world.
13. We will lose the convenience of being able to walk to work.

NO BUY HOUSE - PRO
1. We are not tied down to a house and mortgage
2. No stress from worrying about having a house to take care of
3. I expect that we will make more money in the future - so we might be better able to support having a house than right now
4. This is all new to me. I have just moved here, and in this new life - I really don't know what I want.
5. I don't know what the pros and cons of marriage, etc. are. How will this affect finances, etc.

NO BUY HOUSE - CON
1. Rates will go up and we may not be able to afford getting a house in the future
2. We are contributing to our "impermenance" by not at least looking.

Hmm - looking over past posts I shoud rename this "the bitch list". And this post will be no different!

I just need a little time to commune. So - I'm now in the half-year stage - X-mas was six months to the day that I arrived here in P. How's it going? Dang, not sure. I am happy about certain things - I like being with SO a lot. He generally makes me feel good. But small things just seem to derail me. Maybe i need to go back on anti-depressants. I'm tired - I just killed myself taking classes while working. I did really well - but I feel like this maybe isn't the right thing to be doing. But what then? I feel a lot of contrasting pulls here. I want to finish with this degree - I feel like if I don't do it now, I won't ever be able to. But I don't want to hurt myself by pushing too hard. This was tough because I gained weight, let myself go, etc. And I lose contact with people - I always am in a state where I feel like I don't have time. And I feel like this won't get better if I keep doing the same thing.