I would second the advice to at least have the conversation.
You can pretty easily napkin math out the costs between renting and home ownership: I certainly don't recommend creating higher monthly debt obligations if struggling now (which wasn't clear) but sometimes it just works out more cheaply than renting anyway... plus all the usual financial upside of long term real estate appreciation but that admittedly depends on where you are buying specifically.
Also long term, it's a huge financial win potentially even without appreciation... I'm not tied to my current place at all, but I was doing the math last night and if I buckle down and just pay off the damned auto loan and then mortgage my monthly obligation goes to 1k/month between HOA and real estate taxes. That's it, in LA, 30ish minutes from LAX (sans traffic) which gives me access to all sorts of gigs in this economy, weather is more than nice, I have some friends here, and I need some place to store my **bleep**.
Which all added up to, why move? Or at least why move without a clearer picture of the future?
It's good to have a plan, and other than some absurdly priced areas where it makes no sense to try to buy a place now unless you have walk away money anyway, I really can't see much downside long term to home ownership as long as due diligence is done both in terms of what you can afford, the location, and no unknown major issues.
@SouthJamaica wrote:My advice is to pay off your loans, and postpone your plan to buy a house.
This is the best advice in this thread. I would pay off your car as well.
OP,
If you already feel like you have an issue with saving money, than it's not going to get any better with you tacking on house debt in addition to student & car debt. Not to mention the interest that you are accumulating every month. Pay off ALL your debt with your settlement, and than whatever monthly debt payments you were making, pay that into a savings account. Build up your wealth, and than, if you decide, see about buying a home.
And if you are only making minimum payments (or close to it) on your student loans, than that is also a clear indicator of what you should be doing. There is a reason why student loan debt has surpassed credit card debt in this country. You have to break that vicious cycle and free yourself.
