Reddit mentions of Nolo's Essential Guide to Buying Your First Home

Here is the deal:

Homes: This is property that you OWN. Or rather, own a part of until you pay off your mortgage. Your mortgage is basically paying the bank bank for THEM buying the home for you. The trick is, YOU are in charge of EVERYTHING. I was told recently by friends you need either one large income or two stable incomes to be able to sustain a household. The stable job/s need to have financial security. To get an idea of the costs, here is a link to my thread with A LOT of useful information:

My thread

I also recommend looking up: [Nolo's Essential Guide to Buying Your First Home)(http://www.amazon.com/Nolos-Essential-Guide-Buying-First/dp/1413317626)

Regarding renting: You, typically, own NOTHING. However it gives you the freedom to say, "I dont like living here anymore... lets bail." You have the freedom to do whatever you want with NO ties. Owning a coop/condo, different story.

In your case, you need to make some serious financial decisions with your husband. A coop/condo may be your best bet if you cannot stand the thought of renting anymoer and want to own property.

I would say up to about 5-10 years ago, getting a home was a great idea however the costs involved have increased dramatically without the increases in paychecks.

I got these two books, which were extremely helpful, and written for second graders (which, is wonderful when you don't know shit about the industry!).

Mortgage Ripoffs and Money Savers

Nolo's Essential Guide to Buying Your First Home.

WARNING!!! They were written by Agents and Brokers at the height of the boom. So there is some really fucking bad advise in them, read through the lines, and cherry pick what will work for you given our new market reality.

Overall, I got enough from those books to know what I needed to make better financial decisions, but you can't be completely blind about it - even with the books.

And I heavily supplemented the knowledge that I got from the books with recent blogs and real-estate threads.

So you are in the right place!