So, my Dad has let me know that there's a 401k account of my mother's that he hasn't cashed in since she passed away a few years ago, and he's decided he wants to use it to help me with a down payment for a house. That coupled with the $8000 first time home buyer's credit ( ) means that I am pretty sure that I'm going to own my own place sometime this year.

James and I have talked, and the only downside is that we'd only buy something if we knew exactly where we were planning on living next year, and we've been talking pretty seriously about moving to Portland, Oregon or Austin, Texas.

Money certainly doesn't go as far outside Buffalo. For the price of a 2,000 sqft Victorian home here we could only get a really cute 1 bedroom condo in downtown Portland, like this:







( )

Of course it would be in the middle of an awesome urban area that only gets 2" of snow every winter and has excellent public transit and career opportunities...