How much should I spend on rent?

[trmcph01]

I have been reading the MMM blog for about a month.  Have been reasonably conservative most of my life but have never taken it to the level of MMM which I am trying to do.  My wife and I are both doctors.  I am finishing my training in June and starting a new practice in what seems to be an area with a reasonable demand.  I am purchasing an office from a surgeon who retired one year prior.  I am buying all of the instruments needed for around $147,000 and leasing the building, the previous owner will finance the instruments over a period of 2 years.  He payed taxes on about $60k per month prior to retiring. 

We sold our home on Friday after being on the market less than 24 hours which was definitely good but forces us to move sooner than expected.  After we close on the sale of the home we will have about $65k in cash and another $250k in investments.  We are both in our mid 30s and debt free.  The past several years we spent cleaning up our debt.  Our income has ranged from $50k to $160k over the past four years due to the area being saturated and very little demand for new doctors.  Our intent is to move to an area with more demand and my wife working part time or not at all to raise our children.  I am not banking on the same production as the previous surgeon to be safe.  We are planning to rent a home vs an apartment.  We both agreed that we could live in an apartment but is less than ideal with two small children. We looked at all of the rental options on Zillow and various other websites and depending on where you live in the new area the rent ranges from $1300 per month to $2500 per month for a 1500-2000 sq foot home.  There is one school district that is very good and the others are just fair.  I am 100% opposed to private school and would prefer to live in the good school district which is also where the rent is higher. 

I plan to start the new job in July of this year and will have about $3,200 per month in income until July/August.  The plan is to move my wife and children in April to the rental home and I will stay in the old city to finish my training until July.  Ideally want to stay within 12 miles from the office because I plan to commute by bike which I am doing now. 

Any thoughts on how much to spend on a rental?  Obviously less rent = obtaining FI sooner and will lead to a larger down payment on a home more quickly. 

[Cashonda]

I think you should look for the lowest priced rent in the school district you want to be in, whatever that is. Or if your children are still very young then it is not as much of a concern now, so you could rent in the lower priced area for a few years then move to the better area when they are both old enough for school.

[trmcph01]

That was kind of what I was thinking.  I know it is easy to justify things like education and safety related issues and end up spending more money for what may be zero benefit.  I may settle on something in the $1800-2000 range and try to pile up enough money for a generous down payment or buying a decent property with cash.  Unfortunately the new area we are moving to is a higher cost of living than where we currently live.  Our current location is about as cheap as it gets for a city.