Tammy and I went looking for places to live yesterday.

We had initally considered renting an apartment, but everybody’s been telling us what a waste of money renting is, and we had to agree. So now we’re looking to buy a condo, townhome, or maybe even a small house.

We found an ideal freestanding two-story condo in Redondo Beach, but it’s about $100k out of our price range. It’s in a beautiful development, and all four of the available models are very well designed. I could see us starting our life there, but it’s just not going to happen.

I always thought we made decent money, but our combined income isn’t enough to qualify for the amount of money that we would need to borrow to get it. Pretty depressing. Even worse is that both of our employers haven’t given raises to anybody in a long, long time.

We’ll just have to keep looking, even if it means living where we might not want to be.

If you would like to contribute to the Brett and Tammy Down-Payment Relief Fund, you should contact me as soon as possible.