Hello everyone. I’ve seen many post regarding this topic and here’s mine..

A little about myself. I’m married no kids and early 30’s. We bought our house January 2018 (2 beds 1 bath) as a starter home- stepping stone. We purchased in south central Los Angeles. As you may know it’s not the greatest area.

Fast forward 2024, the housing market is not doing so well as far as being a buyer, which I’m trying to look for my next home to settle in and potentially start a family and even retire (in a nicer area and bigger home 3 bed 2 bath). I know I have equity in my home roughly around 200k or so compared to the comps in the area.

My experience as a home owner wasn’t the best as theres more to it than you think. Property tax and insurance go up. So the Mortgage payment in a sense does go up due to escrow. Also.. utilities.. for those that know LADWP is EXPENSIVE. Then you have maintenance and repairs, I’ve been blessed so far with no major repairs but the maintenance is still there. But being that my house was built 100 years ago who knows

My wife and I both have great salaries but no way am I paying $5500-$6500 mortgage for a house (in a good area) and that’s with 20% down. So now it seems that renting doesn’t sound so bad. We found some really cool modern luxurious apartments with lots of amenities and such that we might just go that route. And what I mean for good area I mean like Lakewood/Cerritos/Downey

Just seems that I’m being too stressed over not being able to advance in life when I finally have a better paying job. (3x the minimum) I did what the American dream said it be.. more like American nightmare.

I just want a better quality life and improve my mental health..

Anyways.. there’s more to it but this about as much context I can think of at the moment. Please share your experiences, give advice or just roast me. I’m really grateful for what I have and know there’s other alternatives but our family is here and we wouldn’t move out of state nor transfer anywhere else as we are invested in our jobs (pension, seniority etc..)