Looking for opinions... My wife and I are thinking of pursuing a house in the $500K range. We will sell our current home that has approximately $150K in equity and we initially planned to put that $150K directly into the purchase of the new home.

Spoke with my mortgage lender and he suggested to do an FHA over a conventional due to lower fees and slightly better % rate, but hold back some of the down payment to payoff other debts (Car @ $800/mo/$30K total, CC - $15K, Student Loan - $20K) to free up monthly cashflow and then refinance in a couple of years assuming interest rates drop.

We gross approximately $180K/yr. and should have a solid trajectory up over the coming years if that matters in this equation.

I'm still waiting on firm numbers as far as interest rates and whatnot are concerned, but I was curious if anybody could provide insight using the data provided, or share similar experiences.