One final thing - At no time in your life can you afford to ignore resale value. Even if you plan to live in a house for the rest of your life and don't care about the .. (whatever) .. life may surprise you and you'll find yourself selling.
We recently sold a well maintained, very nice house in a very good neighbourhood - in a terrible market - and got a good price within a few weeks! Good houses in good locations will always sell no matter how bad the market. And some day you may be forced to sell in a bad market.
A good house doesn't necessarily mean an expensive house either. In fact, buying mid market may be the best plan. Just avoid really bad design, really bad renovations, next door to a junk yard, etc.
We recently sold a well maintained, very nice house in a very good neighbourhood - in a terrible market - and got a good price within a few weeks! Good houses in good locations will always sell no matter how bad the market. And some day you may be forced to sell in a bad market.
A good house doesn't necessarily mean an expensive house either. In fact, buying mid market may be the best plan. Just avoid really bad design, really bad renovations, next door to a junk yard, etc.