re: In the market for a house...

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I think we are doing well and generally good savers, but even still it seems like a massive mountain to climb to afford a home. We really don't have too many extravagant expenses to cut out and even then, it feels like we're looking at close to $3500-$4000 a month in payments when you factor in insurance, mortgage, taxes, etc...

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Probably going to have to move to a lower cost area or buy smaller. I don't think the math works out for a $500k house on a $160k income, especially at current interest rates. I would lower that search criteria to $350k at most.

We bought a $240k house in BR on a $130k household income a couple of years ago and that still feels like we're stretched on how much of our salary goes to mortgage/escrow.

The real kick in the nuts is that the houses that you're looking at probably would have been easily affordable 5 years ago, at $400k and 3.5% interest.

eta: Any option to buy land and build? Though that's an entirely new set of issues/time, and isn't necessarily cheaper unless you put in a ton of work yourself.