House Fever!

Ever since that fateful conversation with our landlord put the home ownership bug into the ears of myself and my husband, we've become a family obsessed.  

We're obsessed with monitoring the first time homeowner tax credit extension process (it's looking likely).  We're obsessed with looking for distressed properties in nearby neighborhoods that might need our love.  We're obsessed with researching the plethora of programs offered in our city and state that could help us buy our first home.

Let's just say, I can see how people got carried away during the housing bubble.  

There are so many opportunities out there right now, it feels like the universe (or at least the local government) is holding the American Dream out to us on a silver platter... just begging us to grab it while we have the chance.

So, I'm trying to tell myself to chill out.  To research everything.  To crunch every number a dozen times.  To talk to as many people who've been through this as possible.  Basically, I know how easily I can get carried away (that's how I got myself into debt a few years back.  Of course, that same singular obsession is how I got myself out of it too.), so I want to make sure that I'm looking at this logically.  I don't want to fall in love with the idea of a house and send myself (and my husband!) careening down a path that doesn't work for us.  

But, I'll admit... the idea of a little house with a mortgage payment lower than our rent (which is what we're looking at), is incredibly appealing.

So, we're taking it slow... sort of in the "wine-and-dine" phase of house hunting, not the "commitment" phase.

Have any of you out in the blogosphere looked into buying a house in the aftermath of the bubble?  What have you experienced?