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In an effort to over-think virtually every aspect of our new life here in Washington, we're starting to get cold feet about buying a house right away.  Everything we see and read says the market is flat and likely heading into a downward spiral as we speak.  It's definitely a buyer's market, which up until now has seemed like a good thing, but after we buy something, we'll be owners, not buyers.  And it's definitely NOT an owner's market.

As much as we'd prefer to be homeowner's living in a lovely home of our careful choosing, it's really hard to get my head around the idea of buying an asset that's immediately going to decline in value.  The cost of the mortgage alone gives me pause.  If we stay in our current apartment, we can save almost $1,500 per month.  If we buy a house, that figure pretty much disappears to zilch.  In a normal, healthy housing market, this is the gamble you take because in the long-run, the appreciation on your home should more than make up for the decrease in monthly savings, but in a bad market, we're talking about likely LOSING that much money every month in the short-term, if not more.

This is not a good thing for our balance sheet.

So we're going to keep looking and if the perfect we-must-own-you-or-we'll-die house presents itself, we'll probably snatch it up (but only after many a round of careful, aggressive negotiations on my lawyer-husband's behalf.  The man LIVES to low-ball.)  But we're going to be exceptionally cautious.  We do plan to live in our next home for probably around five years, but I still worry it could take that long for the market to turn around.  We'll see.

The good news is that we really like the apartment we're in right now.  We didn't know it before we moved here, but this is the most expensive, nicest complex in our city.  To us, the rent seemed cheap (at $700 less than what we had been paying for our lousy apartment in California).  It's honestly the nicest place we've ever lived and until we find just the right house, I don't feel like we're in a hurry to get out of here.