Looking for "general" advice

[xerostatus]

1. Credit: TU08 -- 774, no negatives aside from a 30d late back oct2010.
2. Income: $45,000 according to 2013 taxes, expect to probably hover around 48,000 this year
3. Source of income: Hourly+overtime (my regular work hours gives me 1.5~2 hours of OT each of the 5 week days)
4. Monthly Debt payments: $375 auto loan (just bought a car last month, so I still owe 100% of $25k), about $250~$300 in student loans (plan on setting up a new payment plan to lower the monthly payments, so its not 100% definite), no credit card debt except to keep 1% utilization.
5. Employment: Full time employed, 3 years at same industry/company.
6. Assets/Reserves: $10,000, checkings+savings. expect to continue saving at least $500/mo into this fund
7. Location: Southern California, prefer somewhere in the Los Angeles County but anywhere within "reasonable" commute from downtown LA I would consider
8. Property: wanting a single family house
9. Value: Unsure
10. Occupancy: Primary residence
11. Transaction type: Purchase

Now, I know my sizeable debt obligations would probably bar me from getting much of a mortgage at this point, and I'm not exactly breaking the bank with my income (especially considering this is southern california). 

What I want to know is, not necessarily "whether" I'll be qualified for a mortgage, but "how" and "when".

Optimistically, I "want" to buy a house within the next 2-3 years. I know enough to see that it might be a bit of a stretch, but I'd like to hear what people's thoughts are on how I should prioritize my debt repayments, savings, finances, etc. to allow me to purchase a home in the foreseeable future. 

Basically, where do I go from here? I want to own a home, and right now that is single highest priority. 

[ShanetheMortgageMan]

Well, you could qualify for a home now... but it would only be for about $150k assuming you put 5% down and go with conventional financing.  With FHA you'd likely be capped at $200k with a 3.5% down payment.  That really won't get you much considering you want to be within reasonable driving distance of DTLA... unless you consider Lancaster/Palmdale driving distance.

The biggest items preventing you from purchasing a higher sales price are you named it - your income & debt payments.  Without the car payment, you could be looking at a $235k sales price for FHA or $200k sales price with conventional financing.   If you had no debt payments, you'd still be looking at $235k for FHA but would be looking at about a $240k sales price for conventional (given the same sales price, with your credit score the overall payment for conventional would be cheaper than it would be with FHA).  Any higher than that you'd need to make more money, get a co-signer, fall in love/find a partner/get married and have them go on the loan with you, etc.

At this point I'd make it your game plan to continue saving as much as possible.  A larger down payment doesn't make a huge difference in what you can qualify for, but every little bit can help.  That way when you eventually decide to pull the trigger on getting pre-approved, you can use your savings to pay off the remainder of your loan or put more money down, whichever helps you qualify or the sales price you are aiming for.