I'm moving back to Rochester, New York from Washington, DC this fall. Was planning on renting a place while I pay back my gradschool loans. In looking in the housing the market there it looks like a good 1br apartment in a desireable area would cost me between 600-800/month. However, buying a house is very possible in the same areas for 100-150k, it is even possible to find a duplex in that price range. Looking for some advice as to what I should do as I don't want to add too much debt, but would like to make the smart finanical move.
Current Assets:
salary 85k +3.5k 401k match
74k in 401k balances (will be maxing out by sept for the first time ever!)
$4,600 in company stock (10% of paycheck goes into this program, should have 10k by time to buy in Dec 2015)
5k or so in checking and saving
3k from a side gig
currently own a condo in DC-real estate estimate 460k
Net 350/month renting out the condo after mortgage and condo dues
Old crappy car owned in full
Cell phone paid by work
Liabilities.
-355k on the dc condo mortgage mort at 3.25% but I am stuck paying pmi ($320/month) until 1/2018.
-12k on school loans @ 4.25%, these have been in deferal last 2.5 years as i went to grad school.
-53k on grad school loans @6.5. Havent had these start yet as i just graduated, was planning on refi'ing thru SOFI.
My initial plan was to rent and try to just crush my grad school loans in a year. But seeing that if i can scrap together 20% (20-25k) by selling stock and staying with my parents for a few months, I could buy a place and have a mortgage of less than 750/month is extremely tempting. Is going from 420k in debt to 520k in debt just a crazy move for a single income individual?