Thanks for the encouragement, I hate debt SO much but sometimes there's no way around it, and for you at least your other place is helping out by giving your son a place to stay. Rents both here and down in CA are skyrocketing so even with taxes also going up it's still better to buy. He's got the paperwork and pre-approval stuff done so we'll find out today if the offer works, if not then at least that part is done so he can jump at whatever comes next. The days when rent was supposed to only be a quarter or a third of what you make are looong gone.