No matter how you slice it. We have been approved for plenty of cash, have excellent credit, but the market down here is weird. House prices are falling, all the while insurance rates are going through the roof (the luxury of living near the coast in Florida). Last year we nearly bought our first home, we were in contract and everything. I think all the forces of the universe united to keep us out of that home. Patrick’s car died the big car death, the City of Lansing was claiming us responsible for a mini-van we had sold a year earlier, and the house failed inspection miserably.

So here we are, a year later posturing to make that next step back into the nasty house hunt. A friend put it to me about as plainly as it can get:

“Buying a house is about finding a home you hate the least in the price you can afford.”

C’est ca.