I'm not really into the apartment idea so much. Mainly because my pets are so much a part of my life. I think I would have difficulty warming up most land lord's to pet rats! So many apartments are not pet friendly in this area.
Buying a house is not something I see ourselves doing for a long long time. Houses cost around $175,000-300,000+ around here. I'm seasonal in my government job and am guaranteed to only work about 9 months out of the year. My yearly income is only around $24,000. (If I worked year round, $33,000.) We need two incomes to have our own place. And renting a home is almost like having an apartment. It's not really yours.
One of my co-workers lives in a mobile home and back when she got it it was only around $30,000. One of my aunts in California used to have a huge mobile home with several bedrooms, two bathrooms. It was so nice. It looked just like a ranch home.
I've been looking at mobile homes online and they range from $40,000 up to $100,000 in this area. The ones within $50,000-80,000 have 2 bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms. Some of them even have porches. They are in all age communities, some on private property. Have central air and heating. They are SO NICE! They look like ranch homes. I think this would be ideal for us. A mortgage or loan on a mobile home would be within our budget range. And it would also be our own home. It's definitely something I am serious about doing.
This is the website I've been checking out mobile homes on.
Example of some of the mobile homes I've looked at online:
