Bitter sweet......

We went to our Credit Union today and had a nice long chat with the loan officer about mortgages. We have done this before - some time last year, when we started thinking about buying a house. We decided then, that we needed to have much more saved, and so have been been working diligently at that down payment all this last year.
The plan was to start looking after the baby arrives, which is late Jan early Feb. - So I shouldn't have even been tempting myself by looking at the listings online.

Anyway - we are close - and we should be able to be right where we want to be by Feb of this coming year. I was going to say that I am going to stop looking at the listings online until then this time, but I still like to look, so that I know how long a house has been on the market.
The biggest trouble is the way the rates are changing - had we been in a position to buy just a month ago, we could have snagged those low rates around 5% - and could have easily afforded those monthly payments. But the big jump to almost 7-8%, makes the payments nearly $200 more, and we aren't sure we are comfortable with loosing that extra every month.

Maybe this house we like will sit for a while (not likely, but I can hope, right?)
Things that are bad about this house were: it's old - built in 1913 - had some upgrades here and there, but I imagine there is still old wiring and old plumbing. The worst part about the house was the bedrooms. The "master" was tiny and had no closet. The 2 other bedrooms were upstairs - and you had to walk thru the first room to get to the second room. There is no heat in the upstairs bedrooms. Bright colorful shag carpet, wallpaper, wood paneling and missing stair rails are the other things that may scare others away.

But - when all is said and done, I am feeling very good (calm and relieved) that we are not going to be buying a house right now. It was already vacant, so I am sure it wouldn't have taken long to close on it - and I am just too pregnant right now to want to deal with house projects, moving, and suddenly paying so much money on a mortgage that I would be constantly wondering if we could afford diapers each week.

Like I was saying yesterday, at least it's a good learning experience.
Someday, when the time is right, I know that just the right house will be out there waiting for us to buy it.